Citizens Advice says some 39 per cent of people living with their children in rented homes have a tenancy of six months or less, which they claim creates uncertainty.
Analysis by the charity finds that 34 per cent of private renters would like their tenancy to be longer, rising to almost 40 per cent amongst those with children.
CA says that in recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people bringing up children in privately rented accommodation, with families making up almost four in 10 private rented households.
Based on a YouGov survey of over 2,000 private renting adults in England the CA research shows many families are feeling insecure in their home.
Of private renters with children living with them, some 59 per cent said knowing they may be asked to move out at short notice made it difficult to plan for the future and 35 per cent thought that if they were asked to leave their property their current notice period would not give them enough time to find somewhere else to live.
Almost half said they would prefer not to move between properties as often as they do.
The figures also reveal that 79 per cent of private renters with children have experienced problems with the quality of their home including rodent infestations, broken heating, or no hot water: some 52 per cent had experienced problems with damp or mould.
While in many of these cases the landlord addressed the problems within month, in over a quarter of instances the problem took longer than this to resolve. And where these renters had spent their own time or money fixing a problem, half were not refunded for this by their landlord.
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Is this really something most Tenants want? Many are reluctant to sign for more than 1 year at a time and many of those are nervous if there's no Break Clause. Whilst our average tenant stays for 3.5 years they still like that flexibility- and so does the Landlord. Are they trying to address an area that's not an issue?
My first thoughts exactly. Most that call for this forget that it's a two-way street. Sure, go ahead and sign up for three years, but don't come crying to me when you have a change in circumstance and want out after 8 months...!
Totally agree with all the above comments.
Some of our landlords would love us to give tenants long term lets. In an ideal world if we could secure a tenant in a property for 2- 5 years that would be brilliant. But would that be guaranteed for the landlord? Will the tenant have break clauses? The fear is if the tenant turns into a problem tenant its a very difficult and costly affair to get them out.
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