Lara Nyman, a real estate disputes expert at Seddons, has hit out at tenant campaign group Generation Rent for sensationalising the issue of landlord-tenant disagreements on working from home.
A study in The Independent found that a growing number of landlords are looking to restrict their tenants from working from home on SpareRoom.
This prompted Ben Twomey, chief executive of campaign group Generation Rent, to label such practices as “selfish” and “draconian”. He also said “it should be none of your landlord’s business what you do in [your rental property]”, adding that banning working from home in a rental property should be illegal.
But Nyman said: “It’s all very well Generation Rent saying it’s unfair for tenants, but it’s just not that black and white.
“When you’ve got multiple people at home it does affect the speed of broadband.
“What kind of work are they doing? Is it something that’s going to be noisy? Is it something that involves a stream of people coming into the property?”
The rental unit that sparked the controversy on Twitter/X was a room with a desk being rented at £1,300 per month.
Nyman added: “Generation Rent’s comments are sensationalist.
“I think a lot of it was about how much she was paying – it seems expensive.”
She went on to say that when renting to tenants, landlords need to factor in whether they’re accidentally creating a business tenancy.
Meanwhile insurance policies could make it a requirement for landlords to declare whether any tenants are working from home.
In general, Nyman recommended tenants and landlords keep the lines of communication open, to avoid any disputes.
Addressing tenants, she said: “The starting point is to look at your contract, have a dialogue with your landlord and give consideration to all the factors before you claim they are unreasonable.”
She added: “There are rogue landlords that manipulate the system and are detrimental to the tenant, but it’s a bit of a generalisation – many are reasonable.
“If you over-legislate, as Generation Rent seems to be advocating, you’re going to make renting very difficult.”