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 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!
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@whitequark @exec yeah.
plus we have all that other stuff like landlords are allowed to enter the property 4 times a year to inspect and take photos/video that it's being kept clean to their own standard.and not allowed to put anything on the walls without landlord permission (yes, including those 3M commander strip hooks)
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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 Rental bidding sounds nuts. We need more housing, not rental auctions.
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@whitequark @exec yeah.
plus we have all that other stuff like landlords are allowed to enter the property 4 times a year to inspect and take photos/video that it's being kept clean to their own standard.and not allowed to put anything on the walls without landlord permission (yes, including those 3M commander strip hooks)
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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 from when are these changes effective?
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@whitequark from when are these changes effective?
@Psychonaut August 2025
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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 sounds like the most USA brained shit ever, i'm really surprised there's an aspect of unhinged capitalism that's actually UK/Commonwealth exclusive o.0
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@RejoinEU this is probably the one good thing they've done. the mis-steps are the norm, doing something right is the exception
(and i think a lot of this bill is based on the bill of their predecessors, too)
@whitequark @RejoinEU that’s why I’m still voting Green at the next election
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@NormanDunbar @krans @RejoinEU oh the bishops are gone??
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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 Met these lovely folks through Job #3 - lots of useful info for renters, landlords and campaigners:
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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 I'm still happily amazed that passed, given how many MPs are landlords. Such an improvement
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@RejoinEU this is probably the one good thing they've done. the mis-steps are the norm, doing something right is the exception
(and i think a lot of this bill is based on the bill of their predecessors, too)
@whitequark @RejoinEU The Employee Rights Act is also a huge step forward, which has been largely ignored for reasons I don't understand.
