the UK has had some new legislation enacted which improves renters' rights [initially with England; housing is a devolved matter] by a lot:
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@whitequark the bidding thing feels like a recent development, we encountered it for the first time in 2023. every time I moved before this, you made an offer and the landlord said yes/no. after, it was your bid got put in a big pot, you had to write a grovelling personal statement, etc
@whitequark very glad that it's stopped, it made moving impossible. that year and the year after our landlord put rent up over 10% each year so I'd like to know what effect these laws actually end up having on rent rises
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@exec @whitequark rent bidding has started becoming the norm here in Australia ;_;
wanted to ask about UK/EU stuff tho, how many months notice for landlords ending a rolling contract?
here fixed term is standard and we (tenants) preferred it because it at least gave you 12-24 months of stability at same rent rather than them giving 2-month notice to end so they could relist it at a price higher than they could increase your rent by
@az @exec "it depends" but it's 4 month notice for most of them https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-the-renters-rights-act/guide-to-the-renters-rights-act
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@whitequark Yes, since getting elected this time.
Hereditary peers to be removed from Lords as bill passes
The bill abolishes the 92 seats reserved for peers who inherit their titles through their families.
BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk)
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@whitequark the bidding thing feels like a recent development, we encountered it for the first time in 2023. every time I moved before this, you made an offer and the landlord said yes/no. after, it was your bid got put in a big pot, you had to write a grovelling personal statement, etc
@jcoglan that was the year I moved to the UK. I was competing with 10 other people. it was humiliating
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@whitequark Yes, since getting elected this time.
Hereditary peers to be removed from Lords as bill passes
The bill abolishes the 92 seats reserved for peers who inherit their titles through their families.
BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk)
The majority of hereditary peers, who inherit their titles through their families, were abolished in 1999 under the last Labour government and this bill gets rid of the last remaining 92.
ohhh, I thought they got rid of all of them in '99. well. two good things
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@jcoglan that was the year I moved to the UK. I was competing with 10 other people. it was humiliating
@whitequark yeah it's the first time I ever tried and failed to move house. you'd get outbid by absolutely ridiculous amounts, it drove rents through the roof
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@whitequark What about giving workers the right to stick pay and paternity leave from the first day of their job?
Employment Rights Bill clears last parliamentary hurdle
Sir Keir Starmer said the development marked a "major victory for working people in every part of the country".
BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk)
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@whitequark the bidding thing feels like a recent development, we encountered it for the first time in 2023. every time I moved before this, you made an offer and the landlord said yes/no. after, it was your bid got put in a big pot, you had to write a grovelling personal statement, etc
@jcoglan @whitequark it's completely normal in Australia - some places have rules against the real estate agent asking if you'd like to pay more than someone else, but as far as I know it's still legal for you to make and for them to accept a higher-than-advertised price
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@whitequark What about giving workers the right to stick pay and paternity leave from the first day of their job?
Employment Rights Bill clears last parliamentary hurdle
Sir Keir Starmer said the development marked a "major victory for working people in every part of the country".
BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk)
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@whitequark yeah it's the first time I ever tried and failed to move house. you'd get outbid by absolutely ridiculous amounts, it drove rents through the roof
@jcoglan I didn't get outbid thankfully, would've made me homeless if I had
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@jcoglan @whitequark it's completely normal in Australia - some places have rules against the real estate agent asking if you'd like to pay more than someone else, but as far as I know it's still legal for you to make and for them to accept a higher-than-advertised price
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@whitequark Labour's actual achievements in government don't make people angry, so no-one is interested in reporting on or discussing them.
So far Mr Starmer's government has been a *massive* net improvement on the preceding Tory government, especially for working people.
But it is impossible to ignore the continuing British institutional xenophobia, transphobia and Zionism. It's all anyone will remember.
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@jcoglan @whitequark it's completely normal in Australia - some places have rules against the real estate agent asking if you'd like to pay more than someone else, but as far as I know it's still legal for you to make and for them to accept a higher-than-advertised price
@irina @whitequark afaik this is how the UK always worked. difference from the bidding model is you'd see a place, make an offer, and landlord then accepted (or not) that single offer. you didn't get put in a big pool of bids to be considered at once. (and I never paid more than list price) this did create pressure to view a place urgently, but if you saw a place and liked it you could very probably get it. the bidding model is a huge waste of time viewing places you almost certainly won't get
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@exec an agent suggested I do this like it's the most normal fucking thing with a straight face. I could not believe my ears
@whitequark @exec We lost out on a couple of nice places because of this. Imagine bidding to give more money for a property on which you'll never see a return.
That practice cemented my hatred of letting agents, so I'm glad to see it's been outlawed.
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@whitequark Labour's actual achievements in government don't make people angry, so no-one is interested in reporting on or discussing them.
So far Mr Starmer's government has been a *massive* net improvement on the preceding Tory government, especially for working people.
But it is impossible to ignore the continuing British institutional xenophobia, transphobia and Zionism. It's all anyone will remember.
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@whitequark Absolutely. Where I wrote, "No-one," I should have written, "Very few people on Mastodon."
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@irina @whitequark afaik this is how the UK always worked. difference from the bidding model is you'd see a place, make an offer, and landlord then accepted (or not) that single offer. you didn't get put in a big pool of bids to be considered at once. (and I never paid more than list price) this did create pressure to view a place urgently, but if you saw a place and liked it you could very probably get it. the bidding model is a huge waste of time viewing places you almost certainly won't get
@jcoglan @whitequark most often here there'll be one, maybe two showings for the property (shit-out-of-luck if you can't make it that day), then assuming the property isn't hellishly bad the agent will get a bunch of offers (all done through one of a few truly awful web platforms that take way too much personal info) and the agent picks one of those at their leisure.
usually unless you make the highest offer you won't even get your application looked at (some of the web platforms tell you if they looked or not...)
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@az @exec "it depends" but it's 4 month notice for most of them https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-the-renters-rights-act/guide-to-the-renters-rights-act
@whitequark @exec okay wow those changes are way better than our system.
fixed-term agreements was max 24mths (standard was 12), fucked up that the UK allowed over 12-year leases before?i think some of those provisions would be lovely here! technically we have a bunch of them it's just not enforced or trying to enforce it screws you over. bigger problem is probably bonkers market rate driven by limited supply.
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@whitequark @exec okay wow those changes are way better than our system.
fixed-term agreements was max 24mths (standard was 12), fucked up that the UK allowed over 12-year leases before?i think some of those provisions would be lovely here! technically we have a bunch of them it's just not enforced or trying to enforce it screws you over. bigger problem is probably bonkers market rate driven by limited supply.
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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the UK has had some new legislation enacted which improves renters' rights [initially with England; housing is a devolved matter] by a lot:
- there are no more fixed rental contracts; everything is done on a rolling basis with a generous multiple-month notice
- no-fault evictions are gone
- after an eviction without reason landlords couldn't re-list it as a rental property for a year
- rent can be increased once a year with a 2-month notice
- rent increases can be challenged by a tenant
- "rental bidding" where you try to give the landlord a higher price than other tenants is made illegal (this was the single biggest WTF moment i had arriving to the UK)
- pets must be accepted by default, unless there is a good reason not to ("I don't want to" is not a good reason)
hell yeah.
@whitequark holy shit i'm so glad!
