Martin & Co, Crewe and Nantwich's leading letting agent, has produced an information sheet to address landlord concerns and to provide answers to many of the questions that landlords have been asking.
Director Shaun Cafferty explains:
'"Its perhaps ironic, but a famous Chinese curse is 'may you live in interesting times'. These times are certainly interesting! But also challenging, worrying, uncertain and potentially confusing. Everyone is affected to some degree, and landlords are no exception.
It's easy for the politics of envy and cheap journalism to brand landlords as the idle, filthy rich who capitalise on others' misfortunes. The reality, here in South Cheshire at least, is very different. Many of our landlords are hard working individuals who choose to spend their earnings on building up small investment portfolios. They could instead enjoy fabulous holidays, buy a boat or follow some other expensive hobby - but property is their thing. Others rent out properties in order to build up a pension to see them through old age. They have often ploughed redundancy money into getting a rental property as way of getting the best return from a difficult situation.
So while there will always be others who are worse off, our local landlords are fairly ordinary people and often not remotely filthy rich. They too will be facing personal worries and financial challenges at this time. A landlord who cannot get rent on their investment property could ultimately see it repossessed. This would render the tenant homeless, while the landlord could see their life savings or future pension disappear down the drain. No one wins.
Also, despite their reputation, a great many landlords do care about their tenants' well being, and recognise the obvious benefits of keeping good tenants happy and staying in their houses and apartments. A large number of landlords have contacted us recently to check how their tenants are, and to make it clear that they want to be as supportive as they are able to in these exceptional times. Inevitably, there will be some practical constraints on how supportive they can be, but the goodwill is certainly there - as we have seen elsewhere in our communities during the crisis.
Information from Government to landlords (and tenants) has sometimes seemed confusing and contradictory - they are after all responding to an unprecedented crisis, without an established rule book. Its also been a moving picture. But it's easy to be critical and talk of U-Turns in policy . As the economist Keynes said: "When facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?!"
So we felt it would be a good idea to prepare a document that addresses many of the concerns that landlords have been expressing to us, and to inform them of what is - and isn't - achievable during the current crisis, and generally how they stand. We will keep this updated as any changes occur. I would invite any landlords with any additional questions and concerns to contact me directly, or for an informal chat on [email protected]. We are a very locally rooted business, so we are still able to work with our customers as individuals and in a local context."
The Landlord Information note is available electronically, for a copy simply email [email protected]
