Plymouth City Council has launched a new plan and charter to improve private rented housing in their area.
The Charter for Private Rented Housing is designed as a partnership with local landlords to raise standards for tenants.
Under the charter, landlords are urged to become accredited which will help landlords gain advice and training to mark them out as good landlords for tenants seeking to rent a home in the city.
The Guild of Residential Landlords accreditation scheme (Private Rented Sector Accreditation Scheme, PRSAS) is recognised by Plymouth Council and offers discounted rates on HMO licenses in the area amongst other benefits.
Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Cooperatives, Housing and Community Safety for Plymouth City Council, said:
“The council has pledged to improving private rented housing in Plymouth to ensure both landlords and tenants get a better deal.
“The exciting thing about this is that people from across the private rented housing sector in the city have worked together with the council to highlight private rented housing issues and come up with practical solutions.”
The charter has 12 action points, including:
- To fairly balance the interests of landlords and tenants
- To promote the best private landlords and lettings agents in the city
- To protect tenants from bad landlords and letting agents with unfair practices
- To make tenants of their responsibilities and rights
- To train and support landlords and letting agents
- To set out minimum standard for a safe and healthy home
- Improve energy cost information for tenants
- To quickly deal with housing complaints
I am very proud to be associated with the Charter and am very excited about the future and working with my new colleagues.
What about some ideas to protect good landlords from bad tenants? Perhaps a tenant’s passport detailing previous rentals. It would be good for both parties.
Landlords can already request references from tenants so can fully vet them before commiting to renting them a property. Tenants have no access to information about a landlord.
We are currently being seriously harrassed by our landlord. We have discovered that he has had 8 tenants in the last couple of years alone and has bullyed and harrassed tenants before.
If we had known any of this we wouldn’t have rented the property and could have saved ourselves a pretty terrible time!