In their response to the Rugg Review of the Private Rented Sector the CLG clearly believe that landlordism is word that anyone involved in private lettings should be aware of!

Aside from made up words (?) there is quite a lot of good stuff in the response and I will try to summarise the main points as follows:

• The headline is the idea of a Landlord Register – web based and involving an annual fee, membership would be a prerequisite for taking any legal action and carrying a threat of strike-off if a landlord does behave.
• A requirement that all tenancies are in writing – so obvious, but it might surprise some people to find out that a tenancy does not have to be in writing.
• A minimum standard for tenancies, or possibly a guide – I’m guessing that something prescribed will be the preferred route.
• An increase to the higher limit for AST’s to £100,000
• Full regulation of Letting Agents – racing certainty that this will happen.
• Local Authorities to set up bodies to liaise with the private sector, and make better use of the housing opportunities it provides.

Inferred in the response is that there may be tax breaks for Landlords and a rather guarded hint to the voluntary sector to start building bridges with the private lettings sector ( paragraph 64 could have just said stop arguing and start talking!)

It would appear that the government is keen to keep the amount of primary legislation required to bring about these changes to a minimum so some aspects of their proposals may happen quite quickly.

What is worrying is that the attempts to regulate Tenancy Deposit Protection have been so bungled that the law is almost unenforceable, so look out!

Be interested if anyone has any other examples of the word landlordism being used in conversation!

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Read more about this subject here: Is Landlordism a real word?