Simon Lambert

And that's where you get the issue of tenants saying, OK, well, we'll take the property, but we would like it to be redecorated.

We take the property, but we'd like a new carpet in this room or something like that.

And then it just never happens.

And then they go back to the letting agent and say, you said this was going to happen.

The letting agent goes, oh, yeah, sorry, my landlord says he's not going to do it now.

Half the time, I don't think the landlord even knew.

For want of a better word, they just bullshit people.

And I think that is often one of the problems.

because actually in a scenario where it's like if you're a tenant and you want a tip-top property and you go look at somewhere and you're like, well, it needs redecorating, it needs a carpet, it would be quite nice if the kitchen was done up a bit, quite nice if the bathroom's done up a bit.

Well, you can't expect to rent that property for the price that's on the market if you want all those upgrades.

But you could say, I'll pay you more if you do all those upgrades.

But I think at the moment tenants are like, well, why would I say that?

Because I'll only say that and then they won't even do any of the work.

The jury is out.

I can see, as I said, I can see both sides of this.

I can see how it would be a good thing.

I can see why there is an argument for shifting the balance more in tenants' favour.

I can also see a scenario where I don't think people have really listened to what landlords and the sort of landlord organisations are saying.

I think we might be making the same mistake again.

We make regularly where we completely ignore the people who know what they're talking about and say, you don't know what you're talking about.