By Steve Roulstone
There are times when you just cannot avoid reports on TV that paint a totally false picture, even when you are not looking for it and last Saturday morning as a crowning example of just one of these times. All I was doing was enjoying my breakfast at the start of a long weekend’s holiday and as is my usual routine, catching up with the early news at the same time. So I was watching BBC Breakfast news (although I do see this programme becoming more of a magazine than a true news programme) when once again an ‘expert’ was being asked for his opinion on this month’s attack at the rental market, increasing rents and the effect on the Tenant under contract.
Same old same old!
I must say I do get entirely sick of the way the BBC constantly appear to ‘have a go’ at our market, not just because I am over protective, which would be true anyway, but because they never tell the whole story and always leave these sound bites (because that is what they, not a subject debated, just two minutes of perceived problems) with the impression where our market is concerned that it is unfair, badly managed and led by greedy property owners!
Ignoring the law.
The impression left for those who are not aware, is that rents are increasing in many areas of the Country and Tenants already in property are being asked to pay ever increasing rents or being thrown out! Of course this is just not the case. The Housing Acts of the last thirty years have ensured that a legal framework exists to allow increases and to protect the Tenant from ever increasing rents. This is because Landlords are only allowed to increase rents once every twelve months and then by notice, ensuring that if the rent is too high for the sitting Tenant (something that every Landlord I know tries to avoid, because as was equally ignored by the report, Landlords do not like down times when property sits empty) they have sufficient notice to find an alternative. This way Landlords can ensure the rent received is in line with current rates (Thought; if increases were not allowed, would the BBC bother to report on how Landlords are trapped when Mortgage rates increase? Somehow I doubt it!!) and Tenants know they have twelve months between increases. It is worth pointing out, that this notice period is longer than home owners get when mortgage rates increase!
Does the BBC care?
I have to wonder just how many other industries are treated in the same manner, because the damage done by such powerful organisations in this type of reporting is immeasurable. I would like to feel that through the pages of this Blog I can put the record straight but I could never hope to reach the same numbers as the BBC, even in my wildest dreams! No doubt other industries get treated in the same way, but what really put the top hat on this item was that the ‘expert’ was nothing to do with either our industry or the housing market, rather their own in house financial advisor. Now this to me just confirms that they do not care, for if they had done the right thing and actually spoken to someone who knew the industry, the whole article would have been thrown out, as the actual methods as highlighted above would have thrown the whole concept of ill-treated tenants out of the water! So in conclusion, to me at least, it is obvious that the BBC actually do not care, as long as they have what they believe to be a ‘story’ with a point, truth, facts and of course by default ‘The Law’ are not important to the BBC!
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