Last week the government followed through on one of its promises regarding the property sector though landlords could probably have thought of a couple they would rather have seen come first. As they said they would the government have introduced an initiative that allows tenants to post their feedback about their landlords on a new online forum.

As well as this and actually far less worryingly they have also given tenant the option of contacting a hotline to get advice on any problems they may be having.

The hotline does not concern me, advice and education are always a good thing and this is no exception. A place to rank landlords and fairly much put your personal spin on everything to do with your relationship with your landlord, is not a good idea.

Most of you will have heard of sites that allow people to rank hotel and motels and air their grievances. Plenty of you probably think they are a good thing but I have friends in the hotel/motel industry and have seen vindictive customers impugn the reputation of decent people just because they did not get exactly what they want. Not matter how unreasonable the request was.

Granted this initiative is not to be privately run and one can only hope that means that it will not be the free for all libel fest that the hospitality sites have become. However I have my doubts. I hope to goodness that the fact that this is people’s livelihood we are dealing with here, is taken fully into account.

We shall watch with interest. 

Recent findings by the ARLA Association of Residential Landlords seem to be giving the depressing message that hopes of declining tenant arrears may have been a little premature. It now appears that British landlords are continuing to really struggle with tenants who cannot meet their rental commitments.

55% of the landlords that the ARLA surveyed indicated that one or more of their tenants were currently in some way behind on their payments.

ARLA’s Ian Potter rightly calls this figure a cause for concern.

He notes also that this rental arrears situation has close links to the high level of unemployment we are currently experiencing. And as almost all indicators are signaling that unemployment is set to rise over the next year, respite does not seem likely.

Even though demand for rental accommodation is high at the moment, indebtedness is a problem for a lot of tenants. The worrying trend we discussed earlier in the month, of paying rent with credit cards, is hardly likely to make this situation any better. We have to prepare ourselves for the fact that rental arrears may get worse before they get better.

Potter refers to it as a web of debt and that seems an apt description. Let’s hope that the predicted rise in unemployment does not eventuate as that seems to be our best hope of avoiding arrears spiraling out of control.

According to Paragon Mortgages fewer landlords are employing the services of a financial advisor in order to remortgage. In the last three months of 2009 only 30% of landlords used this particular service, a drop of nine percent from the previous three months figure.

Mainly this is down to an overall reduction in people remortgaging at all. Those who know at Paragon are predicting that this is a trend that will continue for a simple reason. The reversion rate is often, at the moment, more beneficial than the any of the rates available on the few remortgage packages open to landlords.

Until there is some signs of life in the area of buy to let lending very few landlord’s are going to be motivated to take the time. There is a desperate need for fresh and competitive loan options to be available to landlords.

As I stated last week there are some hopeful signs with those landlords with great credit histories looking to expand already successful portfolios being offered some excellent products. That is not enough to ensure the the sector will reach its full potential though.There needs to be a rapid expansion of the types of deals being offered all landlords including those that wish to get involved in this business for the first time.

We have discussed on here before the important role the BTL sector is going to play in ensuring that their is adequate housing for the population over the next few years. The banks need to acknowledge that and get on board.