Property investment professionals “shocked” by shame scheme

October 21, 2008 by OPPE News

Landlord and estate agent groups have joined forced to reject practices which “humiliate” tenants following one agent’s name-and-shame approach to people who failed to pay rent.

The opinions of buy to let investment property owners have been divided by the Liverpool firm, which put ‘rent dodger lives here’ signs outside the properties of renters who persistently failed to cough up.

The National Landlords’ Association (NLA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) both criticised the practice on Monday.

NLA officials had already issued a statement last week slamming the tactic, devised by Sutton Estates.

A new joint release by the NLA and ARLA said many property investment professionals and others within the industry had been “shocked” by the practice.

Ian Potter, ARLA head of operations, said:

“This is almost certainly an illegal activity, contravening data protection and planning laws. Apart from that, what do the agent and landlord expect to achieve?”

Many buy-to-let investors have begun to struggle with mortgage payments thanks to the credit crunch, meaning some are more exposed to hardship when tenants fail to pay rent.

Local paper the Liverpool Echo quoted Neil Heffey, a partner at Sutton Estates, saying he stated the tactic was a last resort.