How CPA will injure landlords
http://www.property24.com/articles/how-cpa-will-injure-landlords/12355
The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) will unleash a litany of woes for buy-to-let investors and rental managing agents if it is implemented in its entirety on 25 October.
The first increment took effect on 25 April 2010.
The Act imposes onerous constraints on landlords whilst empowering defaulting tenants and even threatens the democratic right of investors to charge a market-related rental.
Marlon Shevelew of Marlon Shevelew & Associates, legal adviser to Tenant Profile Network (TPN), said at a TPN seminar on the CPA on Wednesday that if the CPA is accepted in its current form, the onus will fall squarely on landlords to prove that they are not discriminating against anyone – even someone who can’t pay the required rental amount.
“The Act specifically targets unfair discrimination and further enforces the right of equality in the consumer market. If the Act is accepted and enacted, there will be a total shift of the onus to the landlord to prove that he is not discriminating in any way against a tenant on the basis of things like race, gender, nationality, and even income, which means a tenant without the ability to pay cannot be discriminated against.”
Shevelew says the second constraint imposed on landlords will be in terms of marketing his/her property. “Under the CPA, the consumer has an unbridled right to privacy and direct marketing will become very difficult. The landlords’ ability to survive will be severely curtailed as it will be virtually impossible to source potential clients through ads.
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