
Renters may get access to rogue landlord database - pmoriarty
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49062504
======
danso
NYC has a few resources on checking out bad landlords:

The public advocate puts out an annual list of the 100 worst landlords:

[https://landlordwatchlist.com/](https://landlordwatchlist.com/)

There's also various sites that attempt to connect property ownership data
with other city databases, such as inspection violations:
[https://whoownswhat.justfix.nyc](https://whoownswhat.justfix.nyc)

~~~
nextos
That's great. The UK really needs some regulations against scammy landlords
and agents.

The market is a total Wild West now. During the last 5 years, I have rented
many different properties in the Oxbridge area. All brand new houses (I really
was the first person living there), from well-known estate agents and with
high rental prices.

In all cases except one, I have ended up really dissatisfied. Most properties
never attempted to renew my contract after 6/12 months, or asked for an
unreasonable rental increase in order to actually kick me out. I suspect this
was done to put the property back into the market and generate more fees for
the agent. Often, the property would be vacant for a month or two after I
left, which makes even less sense.

Twice, my deposit has not been returned and no explanation has been provided.
Naturally, I took both cases to the Ombudsman and won. But it is a huge waste
of time.

Twice, I had massive floods due to piping issues but received no compensation
despite their promises and legal obligation to do so.

I have rented many other properties abroad, including US & Scandinavia. And
never had an issue. Here, it is crazy bad. And as a tenant you can't do much,
because you need references in order to rent the next flat.

~~~
smartscience
> Most properties never attempted to renew my contract

Martin & Co by any chance? They tried this, but they must have forgotten that
the property was an annex next to the landlady's main house, and we spoke
every day. The estate agent served me an eviction notice, so I just signed a
new rolling contract with the landlady directly.

Other evidence of their genius comes from the fact I specifically told them I
was wanting to rent a place for my new job in the area, and them then writing
to my old employer in Manchester to confirm my future income.

~~~
nextos
No, but I have heard some bad stuff from Martin & Co at work which matches
your experience.

The only decent landlord I have had was a rich guy in Cambridge who marketed
his properties (he also built them) through Savills (crazy fees though) and
managed them himself, without an agent.

So I agree with you. Having middle-men tends to make things even worse.

------
hirundo
How about making it symmetrical and also give landlords access to a rogue
renter database?

~~~
tompccs
Leaving aside the fact that rental markets already have a highly asymmetric
power dynamic, landlords in the UK already do have a de-facto mechanism for
assessing tenants in the form of landlord references. They can also perform
various financial checks, such as employer references, or asking for a
guarantor.

On the other hand, I rent in London and do not even know the name of our
landlord. He/she operates through various limited companies and an agent. I
can infer it through Companies House but that option wouldn't have been
available before we put down our holding deposit.

~~~
chrisseaton
> Leaving aside the fact that rental markets already have a highly asymmetric
> power dynamic, landlords in the UK already do have a de-facto mechanism for
> assessing tenants in the form of landlord references. They can also perform
> various financial checks, such as employer references, or asking for a
> guarantor.

These are just things they ask for though - there's no special legal power
they have to ask for them - you could also ask for the same things from your
prospective landlord if you wanted to, and you'd have the same information.

They'd probably decline to provide them and refuse to rent to you, in the same
way as you can decline to provide them and refuse to rent from them.

~~~
jogjayr
> They'd probably decline to provide them, in the same way as you can decline
> to provide them.

The consequences of declining are very different for both parties. The
landlord moves on to _literally any other prospect_ because everyone else will
provide that information. The tenant can move on to only slumlords, who will
not insist on a credit/criminal background/reference check. Or they can be
homeless.

~~~
mlurp
I think that's really more a function of what slant the market is currently
in, ie, renter's or landlord's market.

If there were a glut of apartments compared to renters, the desperateness
would be reversed.

~~~
pagnol
What would the desperateness of the landlords look like, I wonder?

~~~
goodcanadian
A willingness to waive references, fees, et cetera for any halfway decent
looking tenant. I've benefited from that in the past.

------
dlphn___xyz
hopefully this trend will carry over into employment too - run a background
check on a prospective employer before you decide to do business with them

~~~
IshKebab
There's already Glassdoor (although it has become quite spammy - like LinkedIn
before Microsoft bought it).

~~~
simple_phrases
Glassdoor, Yelp etc are all games by reputation management companies and HR
departments. It's also in the best interest of Glassdoor and Yelp to allow
businesses to remove unsatisfactory reviews, which Yelp already does.

~~~
mancerayder
Do you have evidence? I've written a number of unsatisfactory reviews on Yelp
and they seem like they're still there.

~~~
hartator
They play on the positions: [https://thenextweb.com/insider/2009/02/20/yelp-
remove-bad-re...](https://thenextweb.com/insider/2009/02/20/yelp-remove-bad-
reviewsfor-price/)

~~~
mancerayder
2009?

------
Silhouette
It would be nice if they could incorporate some indication of respect for
deposits as well. From personal experience, the current deposit protection
schemes might be legally regulated and they aren't quite as unhelpful and
sometimes shady as the private car parking enforcement firms, but they seem to
be cut from the same cloth.

------
povertyworld
The reason this is not going to be useful is that every story I've read or
personal anecdote I've been told about landlords involves the person's
building being sold to a new owner. Usually the rogue landlord buys a rent
controlled building that is barely worth owning so the current owner wants
out, and the rogue landlord then proceeds to make the place as unlivable as
possible for the current tenants in order to convert the units to market rate
when they move out. I don't think many landlords are trying to trick people to
move into their buildings just to harass them and throw them out.

~~~
IshKebab
This is England. Rent control isn't a thing.

~~~
povertyworld
Interesting. So why isn't an activist outfit like Generation Rent (the group
pushing for this law) working on getting rent control? In the US everyone on
the left takes it as a given that rent control is a good thing.

~~~
mytailorisrich
Generation Rent is very much on the left and very much in favour of rent
control.

They've already tried but this is a Tory government so they cannot completely
destroy the private rented sector.

But be sure that if Corbyn/Labour get in power soon this will be implemented
no matter the economics against it.

~~~
ben_w
Anecdata: My brother is a small-C conservative who is very worried about
Corbyn precisely because he is expecting Corbyn to introduce rent controls.
However, he also recently said, and I quote: “The conservatives cannot be
trusted with the economy“. Given the current clown-car-on-fire-in-a-dumpster
that is British politics right now, I would give 50% odds of the next election
happening within one year and equally divided odds the largest party after
that election being Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, or Brexit Party.

Not that this contradicts anything you’ve just said.

------
TomMckenny
Landlords already have access to a database compiled from court records of
tenants who have ever sued a landlord whether they won or not. At least in the
US

~~~
TomMckenny
Post seems unpopular for some reason so here's some proof:

[https://www.povertylaw.org/clearinghouse/article/blacklistin...](https://www.povertylaw.org/clearinghouse/article/blacklisting)

[https://www.brickunderground.com/blog/2014/05/tenant_blackli...](https://www.brickunderground.com/blog/2014/05/tenant_blacklist)

[https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/09/14/new-law-protects-
cali...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/09/14/new-law-protects-california-
tenants-from-blacklists/)

[https://www.apartmentguide.com/blog/do-property-managers-
bla...](https://www.apartmentguide.com/blog/do-property-managers-blacklist-
bad-tenants/)

------
dubliner2077
And yet still, be unable to do anything about it. Because there is less
limited supply.

------
flowersjeff
Why exactly is this story on HN? Read the article, and was like - so?... I
guess there's a DB mentioned, although containing 10 entries sounds like a
joke. So trying to find the "tech" angle and all.

~~~
Fargren
I recommend that you read the site guidelines at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

Specifically "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.
That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a
sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual
curiosity." and "Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If
a story is spam or off-topic, flag it."

In general, if a story is in the front page it means that hackers found it
interesting, so it can hardly be off-topic. But if you still think it's
inappropriate for this forum, flag it rather than commenting.

I can speculate that this story is found interesting because many people in
tech live in areas like San Francisco where rent prices are a hot topic.
Therefore stories about how these kinds of places deal with the problem are
relevant.

