Blast Films recent 50 minute piece on landlords was broadcast on BBC 1 on 18 July 2013. There is a flurry of interest from broadcasters in the private rented sector and we will see an increasing number of these types of programmes over the next year. Blast approached us at the NLA about this film and said they wanted to create a documentary that presented a more balanced view of landlords than is prevalent in the media, an aspiration which I applauded. Did you think they succeeded?
My main concern about the piece was it focused on a very narrow range of landlords: large HMO landlord Jim Halliburton (pictured), known by many as HMO Daddy, and two first time landlords, one of them accidental. The range of tenants was also narrow: vulnerable benefit claimants and serial non-payers.
My heart sank when I saw Jim’s multi-let units, they were tiny and many seemed to be in a poor condition. He despaired at the behaviour of his tenants, all carefully selected to make good TV. Herein lies the problem. These programmes always resort to shades of Tenants from hell or Landlords from hell. Jim was portrayed as a shrewd businessman with little compassion, a self made man with £26 million of assets. His tenants were shown as scoring pretty high on the feckless-o-meter, with the exception of a single parent recovering from cancer. It was a kind of West Midlands of despair, somebody’s got to house them and it’s not the landlord’s fault that they have no aspirations and can’t/won’t work. Jim seemed worn down by his business, in his world view there seemed little reason to refurbish and provide top quality accommodation. These were the only kind of tenants he could get, he said.
Meanwhile in London, two landlords were pictured looking forlornly at their tenanted properties having received zero rent for some time. In one case, the failure to commence court action after ten months was beyond belief. It did point to concerns that there are too many inexperienced – often accidental landlords – who really don’t know what they’re doing and are a danger to themselves and the reputation of the sector. Please – as soon as you become a landlord – join an association like the NLA or RLA.
It was novel to see the pain of landlords on the screen, including tears. I have certainly experienced that horrendous feeling of wanting to get somebody out who hasn’t paid rent for several months, when all you can do is wait for due process. I am pleased Paul Shamplina from Landlord Action highlighted the routine local authority advice given to tenants to stay until the bailiffs come. Councils have no alternative as they have such limited resources to rehouse people. Infuriating as it is to landlords, this policy is just part of our landscape.
So what was missing from this documentary? It was short and there is of course a limit to what could be included. But where were the 69% of tenants living in good quality accommodation who say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their landlord? Where were landlords like me who bring empty properties back into use by refurbishing them, helping to revitalise a neighbourhood? What about the HMO landlords who provide good quality rooms for working people? Or landlord as community worker?
A PR colleague reminded me that received wisdom is this just doesn’t make good TV. However, an insightful documentary about the work that landlords do to provide good housing and make positive contributions to the community would be any excellent way to educate everybody about the private rented sector. It would provide good role models for tenants and landlords in the PRS and help all of us improve standards. It would also be pretty ground breaking. I understand television needs characters and conflict to be entertaining. But I’m tired of variations on landlords/tenants from hell and an emphasis on vulnerable tenants or the social sector. It cannot be beyond the creative imagination of programme makers to risk a different approach.
