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Landlords in Wales have condemned official policy and warned they are pulling out of the rental market because of red tape, after a big rise in complaints about sub-standard accommodation.
The shock news comes with the alarm being sounded by the housing ombudsman (covering England) who has spoken of “simmering anger at poor housing conditions” amid a 474 per cent increase in reports of grievances in the last five years.
But one Welsh landlord has declared: “All my properties provide excellent accommodation, and repairs are fixed immediately, so this growing number of complaints about poor accommodation gives a bad name to the vast majority of us who provide a good service.
“The Welsh Government and others are going down completely the wrong track in demonising landlords, when they need us. But I have to work with them so I can’t give my name.”
Another told The Eye: “The bureaucracy involved in renting out homes in Wales is unbelievable, so I’m pulling out. These politicians and officials are shooting themselves in the foot”.
Even 11 years ago the problem seemed acute and the Welsh Government (WG) was told in a report: “Welsh Government needs to reinforce a clear message with its own focus, resources and commitment.
“We believe this requires the visibility and engagement of an implementation group led by the Minister.”
Yet this appeared to have little effect in relation to social housing, and one organisation which closely monitors the growing concerns of tenants in Wales proclaimed: “One of the more pressing concerns is the shortage of 1-bedroom homes across Wales. For tenants, especially young people or single people, this means tougher competition for suitable, affordable properties“.
In April it was reported: “The Welsh housing workforce has “widespread concern” that the government will miss its affordable housing target, according to the latest survey by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Cymru”.
This disturbing news forms a worrying backdrop to anxiety about the role of those involved in the Welsh property market as a whole.
Property experts and homeowners have condemned mistakes by solicitors, after one in Cardiff was sacked for failing to do essential legal work before a huge loan was secured, and his replacement was instructed last year but the task has still not been completed.
The extraordinary situation follows alarming details in another report which criticises errors in the conveyancing world which have had terrible repercussions.
It warned: “This report contains summaries of eight Legal Ombudsman investigations: four are about delays and hidden costs – resulting in some customers losing out on their home or being left with significant unexpected costs. Two relate to a failure to follow the customer’s instructions or inadequate advice or background information on the part of the lawyer – leaving one customer in a caravan on Christmas day, and another some £50,000 out of pocket”.
Separately, the property expert caught out by the solicitor mistakes in Cardiff said: “This is just appalling. I’ve lost thousands of pounds in rental income, I’ve had to borrow money from friends, re-mortgage my house, and not pay mortgages on other properties I own in order to put food on the table.
“But I’ll just have to put this down to experience, because I don’t want to have to sack ANOTHER one”!
Citizens Advice devote a special section giving online information to how to complain about errant property lawyers, declaring: “…you may think that the solicitor or licensed conveyancer has been negligent…”.
It has also been posted on reddit: “Solicitors are useless and make purchasing a home harder. Trying to purchase a home for 6 months now, with no chain, just a new build. Everything they’ve provided me with is just the same old default information I could have gotten myself. I’ve had to amend some info ‘cause they’ve mistakenly labeled the area as “flood risk” while being on a big hill lol.
“I’ve also had to search council public info for them as well, they can’t use Google. They’re now completely blocking the exchange, refuse to cooperate and told me to stop emailing them, as this is keeping them from doing work (as if they’ve done work until now).
“The purchase will fall apart for sure but I refuse to get myself back into this and try again with any other property until something changes in this country with the property purchase process! If people think waiting for months to move is normal, I’ve got news for ya! Check literally any other country”.
However the governing body Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) appears clear that solicitor negligence will not be tolerated, proclaiming: “Our rules aim to uphold high professional standards. We insist that solicitors and firms in England and Wales report serious breaches of our rules to us. But we also need the public, clients and others to let us know when things go wrong in a way that breaches our rules”.
Perhaps rather than politicians making new rules they need to be scrapped altogether, if one Welsh landlord has warned he’s pulling out of providing decent homes because of the red tape involved, and complaints about sub-standard accommodation are growing.
The memories of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry’s astonishing, decades long award-winning career in journalism (when grievances about property were often reported) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in the book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
Tomorrow – how during that career for Phil political stories as well as covering elections have always been paramount, and as the rows over changes to electoral laws in Wales hot up, now comes disturbing news from the United States of America (USA), where Donald Trump is about to tighten voting restrictions, even though they have a very controversial history.
