Here is a question to the blog clinic fast track from Nathan (not his real name), who is a landlord in England.

We have a problem. We are on sabbatical leave overseas, and in January 2023 we rented part of our principal home in England to a person for 4 months (Feb to May).

We have not met this person physically because our study leave started in Sept 2022. (Before she moved in Feb, we had a friend living in our home).

In the emails in Jan, we explained to this person that she was excluded from using our main bedroom, that she could not remove clothes and personal belongings from our furniture, and that she had to give access to the kitchen to our guests in the basement flat which we rent out because the flat has no washing machine.

So, our guests in the basement flat can use our washing machine, which is in the kitchen of our principal home upstairs.

Further, we told her before she moved in that we will be back in our home in April for Easter break for a short visit, and we agreed we would share our home during that period.

After this person moved in, in Feb, trouble started. She does not pay the rent nor the gas and elec. bill as agreed (we pay all the other bills), complained about the guests in the flat sending her messages to use the washing machine, or asking her to keep the music down, and sends horrible emails threatening us and insulting us.

The question is because during the 4 months, we will only be there for one weekend, is this person a tenant or an excluded occupier?

We have everything in our home.. documents, clothes, personal objects, etc. Can we use a notice of peaceful eviction to ask her to leave, after giving her reasonable notice? And if she refuses to leave, can we close the property?

She says she is “10 steps ahead of us”, and will leave only with court eviction. She has been so hostile we are afraid to share our main home, bathroom, and kitchen with her when we are there in April. Please help.

Additional comments

• This person has also asked someone we know to move in, while asking that person to tell us she was not there – we have that on record by that person..
• Because this person does not let our cleaner in , it becomes very difficult to be able to use the flat in the basement because the cleaner cannot do the washing.

Answer

This situation is perhaps a classic example of what not to do when renting out your own home.  And also how not to instruct someone to give legal advice.

• You have not told us how you found this person (who I will refer to as A) – for example, if it was it via a letting agent, an advertisement, a recommendation from a friend, or via a platform such as Airbnb
• You don’t appear to have done any checks or referencing on A.
• It does not look as if you gave A any written agreement – or if you did, no mention of it was given in your instructions.
• You have left all your own possessions in the property for this person to use, including it would appear your personal documents
• You are clearly unfamiliar with the rules which apply when renting out property.

Background law

Let’s start by considering what type of agreement this is.  This is essential as your legal rights will depend on the type of occupation A has.

As your property is in England (the law has now changed in Wales), there are two types of occupation:

• Tenancies, and
• Residential licenses

A tenancy is a type of ‘legal interest in land’, which is a kind of ownership.  Under the Law of Property Act 1925 sq, there are two types of ownership of land:

• Freehold and
• Leasehold

A tenancy is a type of leasehold.  It is different from long leases as the term is much shorter (ie normally six months rather than 99 years), but it is essentially the same occupation type

A residential license is where the occupation is not a trespass because the occupier has the landlord’s permission.

Note that I have a  free guide on my Landlord Law site which will help you work this out.  You may also want to take a look at this post.

When renting a property, you have to work within the system and rules that we have in England.  You cannot create your own – if you try to do this, they will be interpreted within the existing legal framework.  Which will probably result in the parties legal rights and obligations being different from what you had intended.

This is why it is really important that people take a bit of time to read about the rules that apply when renting property before doing anything.

If A has a residential license

From what you say, it looks as if you assumed that A had some sort of informal permission to live in your home for a limited period of time.  However, the problem is, that in England when you allow someone to live in a property for a rent, the default position is that they have a tenancy.

In the 1985 case of Street v. Mountford, the Court held that one of the main characteristics of a tenancy is ‘exclusive occupation’.  Which is the right of the tenant to keep everyone out of the property – including (and perhaps especially) the landlord.

So from your initial instructions, it looked as though you had granted A a tenancy, notwithstanding your intentions (in the case of Street v. Mountford, the landlord’s intention was to grant a residential licence but the Court decided otherwise).

However, in the additional comments you sent later, you mentioned a cleaner.  If a condition of A’s occupancy was that she must allow your cleaner access, then this could be a residential license rather than a tenancy.

If an important part of the occupation agreement is that services are provided which require the landlord’s servants or agents (eg a cleaner) to enter the property – then this cannot be a tenancy.  As the occupier will not have ‘exclusive occupation’.  This is one reason, for example, why hotel room guests do not normally have tenancies.

It’s impossible to say for sure in your situation as I do not have enough information.

The fact that you agreed that A would let you stay in the property may also go to show that the agreement was intended to be a residential license, but it is the requirement to allow access to the cleaner which will be the clincher.  If you are able to prove this.

Could A be a lodger?

Often when homeowners share their home with someone, different rules apply.  In particular, the rules about recovering possession of the property.

Under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, in most cases, it is illegal to recover possession against a tenant or licensee’s wishes, without getting a Court Order first. However, in section 3A of the act, there are some exceptions, one of the most important is where the occupier is a lodger.

This will be where:

• The lodger shares living accommodation with the landlord, and
• Immediately before the license or tenancy (as a lodger can have a tenancy) was granted, and also when it comes to an end, the landlord lived in the property as their ‘only or principal home’

However, it seems clear from your comments above that you were not actually living at the property at the time it was let to A.

You say you were ‘on sabbatical leave’ and later that you are on ‘study leave’.  It is, I suppose, possible that the property could be deemed to be your only or principal home even though you were actually living elsewhere at the time if this was on a temporary basis,  but I have to say I think this is unlikely.  The wording in the act is ‘occupied as his only or principal home premises of which the whole or part of the shared accommodation formed part‘, which I think must mean actually living there.

This is something you should take further advice on.  If you can show that A is a lodger, you may be entitled to evict her without getting a court order first, using the procedure described in my  Lodger Landlord website here.

However, if you were to use this procedure if A was NOT a lodger, she would be entitled to go to court and claim compensation and maybe a Court Injunction ordering you to let her back in.  So you need to be really sure of your position before using this procedure.

If A has a tenancy

If A has a tenancy this is going to be difficult for you.  If the tenant refuses to vacate, it will take some time to evict her, and you can forget about recovering the property in May.

There are only two ways you can legally recover possession from a tenant

• By the tenant moving out voluntarily, or
• By the tenant being physically evicted by a court bailiff (or High Court Enforcement Officer) on the authority of a Court Order for Possession.

There is also the fact that if she has a tenancy, A will have the right to keep out, not only you, but also the people who live downstairs, which will put you in breach of your agreement with them that they can use the washing machine.

Let’s take a look at your options to recover possession

Recovering possession

If A has a tenancy, then there are two grounds that you can use:

• Section 21 – although you cannot serve a section 21 notice until the tenant has been in occupation for at least four months, and
• Rent arrears – which may be the ground that you have to use.

If A has a residential license, then this can be ended by a Notice to Quit after the fixed term of the license has ended, following which you can issue proceedings if A has failed to vacate.  A Notice to Quit, by the way, has to contain specific information and is not just any old notice asking someone to leave.  You can read about Notices to Quit here.

Or you may be able to just issue proceedings if A fails to leave after her agreed time at the property comes to an end.  But serving a Notice to Quit first is the normal procedure.

Whichever procedure you use, and whether A has a tenancy or a residential license, obtaining a possession order through the courts takes a long time.  It will be least six months and it could take up to a year.

Whatever you do, though, (unless A is a lodger and you follow the proper procedure first) DO NOT just change the locks and lock A out.  This is both a criminal offence and will make you liable for a financial compensation claim by A.

Final advice

The information you have given is too vague and unspecific to be able to advise with any certainty, so my main advice is that you should consult a solicitor.  A solicitor who specialises in Landlord and Tenant work.

You will need to provide this solicitor with:

• A copy of any agreement signed with A, if any
• They will need to see all emails and letters exchanged before A moved in, particularly if there is no written agreement, and
• Records (if you have any or can remember) of all discussions you had with A about their occupancy of your property, in particular before they moved in
• Details of what the agreed arrangements were about the cleaner and whether this was an integral part of your agreement with A
• Details of your living arrangements immediately before A moved in (just in case you are able to prove that A is actually a lodger)
• Copies of emails with A since she moved in.

The solicitors should be asked to advise:

• On the type of occupation A has – is she a lodger, a residential licensee or a tenant?
• What procedure would you need to use to recover possession if A fails to vacate in May – this will depend on what her occupation type is

Who should you speak to?  I would recommend that you speak to solicitors who you will be able to use to evict A later, should this be necessary.

One option would be to speak to Landlord Action.  They specialise in landlord eviction work and have a free initial advice service.  Or we have a paid solicitors telephone advice service on Landlord Law.  Any of our panel solicitors would be able to give good advice in your situation.

However, do not expect easy answers.  It sounds like A is minded to be difficult, and unfortunately, you have not acted wisely in the way you have dealt with this.

Good luck.

If not – you continue in this work at your peril.

The background

Solicitors are expensive, and landlords looking to evict tenants are usually short of cash – generally because they are evicting tenants for not paying rent.

This is one reason for the popularity of unregulated eviction companies.

But it’s not often realised that acting for a party in court proceedings is a ‘reserved activity’ under the Legal Services Act 2007.  Reserved that is for solicitors.

Some of you may be indignantly spluttering, ‘why should solicitors be given a monopoly on this work?  Why can’t we choose who we want to represent us?”

The reason is that litigation can be very expensive indeed, and if inexperienced persons are allowed to bring legal cases on behalf of others (who may have no idea what they are doing), this could make their hapless clients liable for significant legal costs.  In particular, if the claim is defended.

For example, if a claim for possession based on rent arrears is issued where the tenant has a claim against the landlord for disrepair, the landlord could find themselves involved in a long drawn out and expensive claim which they are unable to stop – without making themselves liable for their opponent’s legal costs.

This is why the law provides that only solicitors, who

• Are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority
• Have to have proper training and do regular CPD, and
• Who have to carry expensive indemnity and other insurance,

are allowed to act on behalf of clients in litigation.

There is also the fact that clients can complain to the Legal Ombudsman, there is a discretionary compensation fund for cases where insurance is an inadequate remedy, and solicitors who breach the rules can be ‘struck off’ (which means that they can no longer practice as a solicitor).

The only people other than solicitors who can bring claims are litigants in person, and people who hold power of attorney for claimants – so long as the power of attorney authorises this.

What about McKenzie Friends?

Many people vaguely assume that McKenzie Friends are non-lawyers who can conduct cases for people.  For example, people who can’t afford to instruct a solicitor.  However, that is not the case.  The Practice Guidance on this states that they can

• provide moral support for litigants;
• take notes;
• help with case papers; and
• quietly give advice on any aspect of the conduct of the case

But they can’t (without leave of the Court)

• act as the litigants’ agent in relation to the proceedings;
• manage litigants’ cases outside court, for example, by signing court documents; or
• address the court, make oral submissions or examine witnesses, or

Stating at para 19

Courts should be slow to grant any application from a litigant for a right of audience or a right to conduct litigation to any lay person, including a MF. This is because a person exercising such rights must ordinarily be properly trained, be under professional discipline (including an obligation to insure against liability for negligence) and be subject to an overriding duty to the court. These requirements are necessary for the protection of all parties to litigation and are essential to the proper administration of justice.

Examples of McKenzie Friends will be friends and relatives of a claimant or defendant (particularly if they are ‘vulnerable’ in some way) or not-for-profit advice organisations such as the CAB.

Gill v. Kassam – A past case

In 2018 I wrote about the case of Gill v. Kassam, where the court was asked to consider the validity of a claim for eviction where the claimants were represented by an unregulated adviser.

The Judge in that case was highly critical of the adviser but felt that it would be unfair to penalise the claimant, Mr Gill, and so agreed to grant the possession order.

I wrote about this here and discussed in some detail the issues involved.

A new case – Baxter v Doble & Anor [2023]

In 2018 proceedings for possession were brought against a tenant, Mr Baxter, on the basis of serious rent arrears.  It is not denied that the claimant was entitled to possession, and indeed a possession order has now been made.

However, an application was then made to commit the claimant’s legal advisers, Sarah Doble and Sarah Doble Associates ltd, on the basis that they had provided legal services to Mr Persey in the proceedings in a way that amounted to ‘the conduct of litigation for the purposes of section 12(2) of the Legal Services Act 2007 (“the 2007 Act”), by persons who are not entitled to do so’.

Ms Doble is a qualified legal executive, but her firm is not authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to carry out legal representation in litigation.  In the case, she accepted this but defended on the basis that the service she provided did not constitute ‘conducting litigation’.

So the question the Court had to decide was – was the work that she did merely advisory, or did it cross the line between ‘help’ and actually ‘conducting litigation’?

Did Ms Doble ‘conduct litigation’ or just help and advise?

This is an important issue as there are many firms providing this type of service who, as they do not have the expenses incurred by regulated firms, are usually able to provide help to landlords at a lower cost.  Indeed this sort of thing is described in the judgement as ‘a new legal profession’.

Unlike many of the firms doing this type of work, Ms Doble is a legally qualified practitioner (CILEX) and had discussed the work that she did extensively with CILEX regulation who, although they did not specifically authorise it, did not object.  She had also been advised by a ‘specialist regulatory solicitor’ that she was working within the law and had, in the past, adapted her procedures on the basis of the advice she had received.

The Judge found her to be a truthful witness and acting in good faith.

So she did have some justification for believing that she was not providing a reserved activity.  The  Judgement goes into some detail about the work that she did, and anyone doing this work themselves should read the judgement carefully.

The work that she had done for Mr Persey included:

• Drafting the claim forms and other paperwork (although they were signed by the client)
• Posting these to the Court
• Paying the fees
• Signing a certificate of service of issue
• Instructing an advocate for the hearing
• Drafting witness statements
• Drafting further court paperwork

Allegations of illegality

The defendant’s solicitors apparently raised the issue with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, who told her that if they continued corresponding with Ms Doble, this could constitute conspiracy in a criminal offence!

The 2007 act defines ‘the conduct of litigation’ as follows

The “conduct of litigation” means—
(a) the issuing of proceedings before any court in England and Wales,
(b) the commencement, prosecution and defence of such proceedings, and
(c) the performance of any ancillary functions in relation to such proceedings (such as entering appearances to actions).

The Judge’s decision

The Judge, having considered a number of similar cases in the past (including the Gill v. Kassam case), decided that although many individual actions, on their own, would not constitute ‘conduct of litigation they may do so if ‘taken in the round’.

In this case, they held that Ms Doble’s service DID constitute conduct of litigation as she had done practically everything that a regulated solicitor would have done apart from actually going on the record’.

So Ms Doble was guilty of the offence.  But did she have a defence?

The answer was yes, she did.  She had followed guidance provided by CILEX and had adapted her procedures following legal advice, and so it was reasonable for her to have believed that she was acting in accordance with the law.

A warning to other eviction companies

Following this judgement, all businesses which provide eviction assistance to landlords must now revise their procedures.

If this is you, this means reading the judgement in this case in detail and checking the Judge’s comments against the work that you do.  I would also suggest that you take legal advice.

Ms Doble did have justification for believing that she was acting within the law.  I am not convinced that many of the other companies carrying out this work have any justification for believing this at all, and so if they carry on, will be putting themselves at risk of criminal proceedings and also of being found in contempt of court.

Particularly after this case which is effectively giving notice to all who do this work, that they are acting illegally.

So you continue in this line of work at your own risk!

What about Landlord Law?

I used to do eviction work for many years, when I ran my solicitors firm TJ Shepperson (and you can read posts about my work in the older part of this site).  TJ Shepperson used to run alongside my online service Landlord Law.

However, since TJ Shepperson closed in 2013, the Landlord Law eviction help consists of articles and FAQ, our online step-by-step guide, various webinars and other recorded training from legal experts and answers to ‘quick questions’ put to me in our members’ forum area.  Plus our paid solicitors telephone advice service. None of which constitute ‘conducting litigation’.

You can read about the various services we offer on this page.

If YOU are considering evicting your tenants, the best place to start is our online Which Possession Proceedings Guide.

Welcome to our weekly Newsround, where this week we have a new rent guide out and the long awaited budget.

But was there much in there for landlords? We take a look.

Budget squeezes out Landlords & housing

It was a budget to give economic growth, or was it? The consensus is that the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has

• completely overlooked the housing sector with no mention or support for first-time buyers,
• no help for buy-to-let landlords to help the declining PRS sector and
• no solutions for the increasing lack of rented housing with added security.

It fact, it still looks quite grim for landlords. You can read the reactions from some industry leaders here, but here are some comments:-

Ben Woolman, Director for Woolbro Group said

The bewildering absence of support for first-time buyers and the property sector is a catastrophic misstep for the Tories which could cost them in the next general election.

Chris Norris, policy director for the NRLA said

The Chancellor spoke of growth yet did nothing to introduce the pro-growth measures that are necessary if the private rented sector’s supply crisis is to be addressed.

The current system, under which landlords are penalised for providing new homes to rent, only makes it tougher for many renters to access good quality rental properties. Without a comprehensive review of how the sector is taxed, supply and demand issues will only become more acute as time goes on.

The Budget also does nothing for those who are in receipt of housing benefit payments, who will continue to face an unjust freeze on the support they need.

Some have said that the bewildering lack of support in the budget for this industry could cost this government dearly with an election coming up.

New ‘How to Rent’ guide out today

It has been over two years since the last update of the ‘How to Rent’ guide was issued by the government, and a new guide is out today.

Landlords must serve this new guide with all new tenancies and at renewals, too, as it is part of the prescribed information that all landlords must issue.  Failure to do so will impact their right to repossess under the Section 21 notice.

NRLA has said that the guide now reflects recent legal changes for the use of carbon monoxide alarms to be fitted in every room with a fixed fuel appliance, along with providing the tenant with a copy of the electrical certificate.

It further gives information on smart meters and a guide on ensuring a property is suitable for a disability.

The guide is available for free on the Gov.uk website here.

Open-ended tenancies for students won’t work

The NRLA continue to lobby the government over the proposed open-ended tenancies and how they will not work within the student letting industry.

In a letter signed by the NRLA and education groups, they are stating that open-ended tenancies will seriously affect students entering into higher education and make finding accommodation a lot harder at the beginning of each academic year, unless previous students have handed in their notice to leave.

Many UK universities and the British Property Federation have signed the letter warning that without having fixed tenancies in place, the availability for student housing will be severely reduced. They warn

A shortage of this accommodation has already led some academic institutions to call for a limit to be placed on student intakes for as long as the next five years. The proposed introduction of open-ended tenancies and inevitable reduction in housing supply is therefore likely to further constrain the expansion of the education sector, to the detriment of prospective students and wider society.

They are calling on the government to extend an exemption on open-ended tenancies for Purpose Built Student Accommodation to cover all student housing.

This should also allow for a landlord to be able to give two months’ notice to repossess a property when it is needed for incoming students.

Landmark Rakusen vs Jepson case was no defence for landlord

A landlord in a RRO court case has failed in an attempt to use the Rakusen vs Jepson case as a defence.

He was ordered to pay £1308.62, £4756.60 plus £300 costs as the tribunal concluded that he was the immediate landlord despite a property management company receiving the rent. The tenants claimed the rent repayment orders as no HMO license had been secured from Tower Hamlets Council.

The tribunal said

Taking the evidence together it was clear to the tribunal that, regardless of who received the rent, the applicants’ immediate landlord was clearly the respondent Mr Mansour. Taking this poor conduct into account the tribunal concluded that it was necessary to increase the amount of the order to be made to 70% of the possible maximum rather than 60%.

You can read the full article and judgement here.

Snippets

Another council to introduce £1000 city-wide HMO licensing
Letting agent ordered to pay over £25,000 for serious fire safety breaches
Labour candidate on the warpath over the ‘landlord loophole’
Energy Efficiency – heat pumps ‘make little difference’ claims survey
Landlord reveal their ‘go to’ energy efficiency upgrade
Rental Mediation Scheme flops with almost no users
Renters ditch cities and flee to suburbia seeking cheaper properties

Newsround will be back next week.

This post is a bit ‘off topic’ although asylum seekers need to be housed somewhere, and we do have a housing crisis.

However, housing is not the only crisis we face. For example

• There are not enough people willing to work for the NHS – NHS statistics given here state that staff vacancies in NHS trusts in England increased from around 133,100 in the quarter to June 2022 to around 133,400 in the quarter to September 2022. Which we are told is a five-year high.
• There are also problems in hospitality now that cheap labour is no longer coming from Europe,
• Shortages of agricultural workers, particularly for picking fruit and abattoir staff, and
• A shortage of building workers, such as bricklayers, plumbers and the like, as our largely older workforce approach retirement

There is also the problem that we have an ageing population in the UK. We need more younger workers to support them. More younger workers mean more tax income and other money to support the pensions of the elderly.

Then, if we want growth, we will need people to work in the new green industries, which could turn the UK back into a prosperous manufacturing country again.

These are just some of the problems we are facing.

But surely the solution is staring us in the face?

Many asylum seekers are good people with the skills that we need. Why do we not welcome them?

Here is a suggested course of action:

• Invest heavily in staff to process asylum seekers as quickly as possible, and maybe
• Set up processing centres abroad, perhaps in the camps, to provide a legal route for genuine asylum seekers to use (this would disincentivise people from using the illegal and dangerous small boats route).
• Once applications have been processed, illegal applicants can then be deported immediately. Meaning that we will no longer have to pay for their support.
• We should then focus on getting successful applicants into work as quickly as possible. For example, by providing English language and other training that they may need.
• Once they are in employment, they would be able to support themselves (which is what most of them want).

This would help the economy by filling the vacancies as discussed above, and maybe provide the builders and construction workers needed to help build the new houses we need.

This approach could pay for itself by:

• The income tax paid once the asylum seekers are in work
• Savings on hotel accommodation and other expenses paid for asylum seekers, and maybe
• A financial levy charged to asylum seekers and refugees once their income reaches a certain level, to pay back the cost of any training provided.

Consideration could also be given to allowing people wanting to come to this country who do not qualify as asylum seekers, to remain so long as they work in specific industries where workers are badly needed. Such as the NHS, assuming that they have relevant skills.

And finally,

All politicians talk about the need for growth. One way of getting growth is by increasing the workforce. Why can’t we do this by taking in asylum seekers, who are desperate to come here and who are no longer able to live in their own country?

It is, in my opinion, the right and humane thing to do. Asylum seekers and refugees have been coming to Britain for hundreds of years and have always enriched our country.
Indeed, some Tory right-wingers themselves, including Ms Braverman, the current home secretary, are descended from them.

So why does no one talk about the points raised above? Is there some obvious reason which I have missed? Please leave your comments below.

As promised last week, our free webinar with housing barrister Robert Brown took place this morning.

Robert represented the National Residential Landlords Association in the case of Rakusen v. Jepson which was all about who is liable for rent repayment orders – is it just the immediate landlord or can an order be made against the superior landlord where there is a ‘rent to rent’ arrangement in plaace.

The Court of Appeal found for the superior landlord last year (which we discussed here)  and the Supreme Court followed that decision.  In essence, they found that a rent repayment order can only be made against the immediate landlord – as that is the landlord the rent was paid to.  The rent was not paid to the superior landlord, so he cannot ‘repay’ it.

In this fascinating webinar, Robert looks at rent to rent and what it is, and rent repayment orders and the rules surrounding them.  Before going on to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision and reasoning.  Watch the webinar below:

Some of the links discussed in the webinar:

The Housing Act 2004
The Housing and Planning Act 2016
The Podcast episode with Simon White
The Landlord Law YouTube Channel
The Landlord Law Rent to Rent Training
The Landlord Law Rent to Rent Tenancy Agreement

Finally, if you enjoy watching the webinar, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.  You can do this by clicking the Landlord Law logo on the YouTube video.

Here we are at another Newsround, let’s see what’s been happening in the housing news this week.

Tenants told to complain more

Michael Gove has launched a new government campaign ‘Make This Right’ which urges tenants to complain to their landlords about sub-standard problems in their homes.

If no recourse is forthcoming for social housing tenants, then the campaign tells encourages them to escalate to the Housing Ombudsman.

Funding is also being given to Citizens Advice staff in two pilot areas, and there will be adverts running on social media platforms. Michael Gove says

Too many social housing tenants are being let down and ignored. This government is determined to stand up for them and give them a proper voice. They deserve a decent, safe and secure home, just like everybody else.

So we are shining a light on rogue landlords that ignore their tenants time and again and allow families to live in disrepair. This campaign will make sure tenants know their rights and how to make a complaint – giving them the confidence to go to the Ombudsman and ensure action is taken.

The government has found via the social housing resident panel that 65% of members had experienced unsatisfactory resolutions following complaints to their landlord. You can read more here.

Council kicks off an anti mould campaign

Hackney council has put some £400,000 extra funding to their enforcement team to help towards tackling private landlords who do not deal with mould and damp in their properties. This is in addition to extra funding it has put into social housing as well. They have committed to a five-day turn around on all damp and mould that are reported, and a next day repair programme.

This has been running since December and they claim that they have responded to over 70 reports of damp and mould in the PRS sector and each one has been acted upon within five days of enforcement notices being served. Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville says

We’ve already announced clear plans to tackle damp and mould in council properties – this additional investment we are making available in this year’s budget will mean we can provide the same support for private renters.

Sam Moema, Mayoral Advisor adds

This funding boost will allow us to use every power to raise standards of accommodation and challenge rogue landlords in the borough, while we continue to lobby the national government for the protections that our private renters deserve.

Letting Agents show more appeal

A new survey carried out by Kellie Steed, a buy-to-let expert from Uswitch has identified that 63% of self-managing landlords would consider using a letting agent or property manager. This is mainly due to landlords not wanting to deal with repairs (31%) but also the current uncertain times for landlords with rising mortgage costs, the impending renter’s reform bill and ever changing legislation.

Repairs and property maintenance is estimated to cost landlords one-fifth of their income. Kellie Steed says

Switching to a letting management company offers some attractive advantages, and gives landlords the scope to hold onto their investment. Property managers have a strong knowledge of the market’s changing regulations and can also take on much of the responsibility of owning investment property: lettings, repairs, rental disputes and complaints can all be tackled by an agency. Many offer increasingly alluring packages for landlords in return for around 10-20% of profits.

You can read the full article here, where there is a breakdown of the statistics.

Planning rule breach results in large fine

A landlord who did not seek to get planning approval for converting a basement in one of his houses into three tiny flats and building a sub-standard rear window extension on the roof of another property, has been ordered to repay £42,637.20 for illegal gains and in addition to this another £10,000 in fines and costs.

Despite losing appeals, the landlord still failed to comply with the council. He pleaded guilty in court. This followed a long investigation starting in 2015 until finally coming to court in 2021.

A councillor for Southwark council said

Everyone deserves a good quality place to live. Planning rules and space standards make sure that new developments are good quality and a decent size.

This was a shameless attempt to shoehorn three tiny flats into one basement, along with an illegal roof extension. This outcome serves as a warning that we will not tolerate planning breaches. It also supports us in cracking down on those who try to benefit from renting illegal and sub-standard properties in Southwark.

All planning breaches at the properties have now been resolved.

Free Loans must be offered to landlords for EPC upgrades

Propertymark has called on the government to initialise interest-free loans or grants to help landlords cover the cost of EPC upgrades. The clock is ticking for landlords to comply by an energy efficiency rating of C from April 2025 for all new tenancies along with a cap of spending £10,000 which some say is too high.

Propertymark has recommended that the Development Bank of Wales, where Wales has some of the lowest property values, could offer grants or interest free loans to landlords to help them decarbonise and to finance retrofit. It also suggested that landlords buying properties in need of significant work should pay a lower stamp duty.

Propertymark predict that 40% of properties in England and Wales would not be upgraded to a ‘C’ EPC rating in time without any help.

Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns are Propertymark says

We’re really pleased to see that our proposals such as the availability of interest free grants for landlords, requests for an agreed timetable and milestones for the sector, the production and inclusion of a clear decarbonisation strategy, alongside calls for the Minister to provide clarity on how she will raise awareness have all been recommended to the Welsh Government.

We now urge the Welsh Government to act upon these recommendations and work with the UK Government to introduce policies that allow landlords and homeowners to decarbonise their homes and properties in Wales.

Ikea backs Shelter to raise awareness of homelessness

Ikea has teamed up with Shelter to raise more awareness on homelessness, saying that 21% of adults are worried about loosing their homes and admit that they would really struggle finding somewhere else should that happen. Furthermore tenants are now taking on second jobs and skipping meals in order to afford their rents.

Ikea has launched ‘Real Life Roomsets’ in four of its largest stores where they describe roomsets as

Cramped, dangerous, and grotty spaces that an increasing number of people who are experiencing homelessness are forced to experience when living in temporary accommodation.

A spokesperson for Ikea says

With a shortage in social housing, some families are finding themselves living in temporary accommodation for years, and are very often asked to move several times with short notice.

Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Shelter says

A grotty hostel or B&B is not a home, but this is the reality for too many families stuck in temporary accommodation. That’s why we’re working with IKEA to show the grim living situations that families who become homeless are having to face – from having no space for children to do homework or play, to having to share beds, to being moved miles away from schools and support networks.

The solution to this crisis is simple and it’s staring the government in the face: we must build a new generation of good quality social housing that people can actually afford to live in.

It will be interesting to see how effective this campaign will be.

Snippets

Rental market shows no sign of slowing as rents continue to rise
Most £1000 licence applications ‘omit vital information’
Cowboy HMO landlord given £8,000 fine over ‘horror house HMO conversion
HMO landlords urged to share views on controversial council tax re-banding consultation
Landlords warned over Section 13 rent rises after Court of Appeal decision
Eco-tax breaks for green landlords under consideration – Propertymark
NRLA chief rebuts claims that he ‘misled’ MPs about PRS shortages
Trading Standards issues warning after letting agency fined
Scrap VAT for landlords trying to improve EPC ratings – call

Newsround will be back next week.

Another week with no shortage of housing news, lets see what’s hit the headlines this week, and no surprises EPC’s are strong headline news again.  But first:

The Supreme Court decision in Rakusen v. Jepson

This is the case where tenants renting under a ‘rent to rent’ arrangement are claiming a rent repayment order from the superior landlord rather than their direct landlord.

The court has found for the landlord, partly on the basis that a ‘repayment’ order cannot be made against someone who has never received the money.  Although Solicitor David Smith has suggested that if MPs are unhappy at the decision, they could amend the Renters Reform Bill to change the law.

If you want to learn more about this important case, barrister Robert Brown, who acted for the interveners NRLA will be discussing it with me in a free webinar next week which you can read about here.

EPC’s are grossly inacurrate

New research just released makes a staggering claim that EPC’s are inaccurate, can be easily rigged and are not worth the paper they are written on. A report in the Sunday Times carried out by a compnay called Carbonlaces makes the claim that EPC’s overestimate energy use by up to 344%.

Carbonlaces compared EPC’s on over 17,000 homes against their actual usage logged by their smart meters every half hour for 300 days, to work out their energy bills. They said

The average metered gas and electricity use for all the properties studied was 125kWh per square metre a year — 91 per cent lower than what their EPCs claim (239kWh/m2/yr). The lower the EPC rating, the bigger the overestimation. For properties with the worst rating of G, EPCs estimate they use 656kWh/m2/yr. Yet their smart meters show they use only 151kWh/m2/yr — a 344 per cent gap.

It was noted that carbon emissions were also grossly over estimated by 20% and 308%.

EPC’s for new homes were also noted to be widely open to abuse where an EPC can be issued at design stage where it is based on assumptions, not actual build. New builds have then had to be ‘adjusted’ by filling holes and gaps after build work if the rating comes out lower than originally declared.

This is of high importance to landlords who are under pressure to have all let properties at an EPC rating of C by 2025.

Watchdog launches report into PRS

A three month investigation by The Competition and Markets Authority will look into the ‘end to end’ experience of a tenant from finding a house, renting it and then moving in. It will look into the relationship between landlord and tenant along with any intermediaries such as letting agents.

Running along side of this it will also run a study on house building. It will see how builders are delivering the right sort of homes, land management, land banking and how councils see the delivery of affordable housing. It will also look into what might be holding up builders implementing newer building techniques and sustainable net zero homes.

It will be interesting to see what their reports identify.

Airbnb loophole on council tax

It appears that some second home owners are changing their lets to Airbnb which means that they become permanent short lets and thus only pay business rates rather than higher council tax.

This claim is made by Action on Empty Homes which claims that more than 250,000 properties have stood empty for more than six months, whilst some 207,000 are excluded from paying council tax due to exemptions. Couple this with the 257,000 second homes and 70,000 second homes that are now short lets means there are over 1m homes with no residents.

Action on Empty Homes wants the government to act more on Empty Dwelling Management Order powers and remove the need to prove vandalism, anti-social behaviour or dangerous dereliction with an empty home before action can be taken. It also wants to councils to be better able to deal with local empty homes.

The campaign says

One owner can own as many ‘second homes’ as they like and does not have to prove use of them as a ‘second home’, nor pay council tax  penalties for leaving them empty and unused. So are these all 257,000 ‘second homes’ actually holiday homes?

Action on Empty Homes wants the UL government to apply harder rules like Scotland and Wales, where short lets have to be licensed and pay need planning consent.

HMO decline from constant legislation

The overall number of HMO’s has declined in the past year with West Midlands having the highest decline of 26.1% followed by the North East dropping by 15.8% and the South East being down by 6.7%. Some areas have bucked this trend and actually increased their stock such as West Midland that has 16.9% record growth over the past year.

HMO’s account for 2% of the entire nation’s dwellings, London being home to the largest stock of 145,378 and the East Midlands has the lowest of 21,752. These figures have been recorded following the government’s recent and ongoing changes to HMO regulation to improve safety and living standards. According to Sirius, new regulations along with higher costs and more complicated laws have driven some HMO landlords out of the market.

Kimberley Gates, head of corporate partnerships at Sirius Property Finance says

Any legislative change designed to improve tenant welfare is a positive one on the face of it, but much like the regular buy-to-let sector, a perhaps overly heavy-handed approach by the government has led to a decline in the number of HMOs available across the nation.

The implications of this decline to tenants are inevitably a higher cost when renting, due to the growing imbalance between HMO supply and demand.

However, as the HMO sector continues to find its feet in the wake of these legislative changes, it presents a great opportunity for investors entering the space who can hit the ground running and capitalise on high tenant demand levels. Providing they have their house in order in terms of licensing and living standards, of course.

You can read more here.

Snippets

Huge discounts for landlords making cash purchases
High number of BTL landlords still unaware of the upcoming changes to EPC regulations
Third of landlords could be forced to sell up after failing their lender’s affordability test to remortgage
Politicians want tax incentives for landlords to boost energy efficiency
Landlords urged to check grants for EV chargepoints
‘Link landlord EPC costs to rents instead of £10k cap’ politicians told
Bailiffs accused of confusing vulnerable tenants with ‘lookalike’ police outfits
1000s of ‘mortgage prisoner’ landlords still need help, says Martin Lewis

Newsround will be back next week

A free webinar:

The Supreme Court has now handed down its decision in the case of Rakusen v. Jepson and the decision is in favour of landlords.

Or rather landlords who rent out their properties to tenants, not to live in themselves, but to sublet them to others.  A situation known as ‘rent to rent’.

This is an important decision for both landlords and for tenants:

• For landlords, it is a good decision as it means that only the person who actually receives the rent can be made liable to  repay it
• For tenants, it is a bad decision as it means that where their immediate landlord has no assets they will be unable to enforce their claim against the property owner – who may have sublet deliberately to avoid liability

As well as the main parties, there were also two ‘interveners’ in the case:

• The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) representing the interests of landlords, and
• An organisation called ‘Safer Renting’ (run partly by Ben Reeve Lewis, who used to write for this blog) representing the interests of tenants

To explain the decision to us all, I have invited barrister Robert Brown who appeared from the NRLA, to present a free webinar and explain it to us.  Here are the details:

Date: Friday 10 March
Time: 11.00 am – to last approx 40 minutes to an hour
Guest speaker: Robert Brown, barrister, of Selborne Chambers in London
Cost: FREE

Reserve your place here

Or sign up via the widget below:

Here is a question for the blog clinic fast track from Alison (not her real name), who is a tenant.

In 09/22 I entered into a 1-yr tenancy (contract managed by agency & the property by the landlord).

My contract states:

“To notify each supplier of gas, electricity, water that the Tenancy has commenced by completing an application for a supply to the Premises in the name of the Tenant and not in the name of the Landlord.”

Upon moving in, I put electricity & water in my name but couldn’t identify the gas supplier, so inquired on email with landlord. The landlord didn’t respond. 7 weeks later, he sent an email stating he was contractually bound to a supplier and demanded payment for a “warm water and heating” invoice.

I replied that I hadn’t been made aware of this prior to the start of the tenancy, and it’s not contractually agreed. Also, it hinders me from getting a competitive price. The landlord insists on payment & that I’m in breach of our contract due to this clause:

“Reimbursments: Where the Landlord is entitled to do anything at the cost or expense of the Tenant and thereby incurs a loss, then the Tenant shall pay by way of damages the loss so suffered by the Landlord promptly and when requested so to do failing which the Landlord may treat his loss as a deductible sum from the Deposit”

Also, I took photos of all existing damages in the flat upon moving in and sent them to the landlord by email (initially via a Google drive link, due to the size, and later as attachments to multiple emails). The landlord didn’t acknowledge the photos as he was awaiting an inventory report from a third-party and would only acknowledge that. He sent me said report on 01/23.

The landlord is threatening to action a Section 8 for breach of non-payment, turn off the services or mutually break the contract and I move out.

Please advise on:

1) The unpaid bills
2) am I in breach of the contract?
3) Will he get to take said bills out my deposit
4) Can he shut off the supply?
5) my legal position on all matters?
6) am I liable for existing damages that aren’t in the report but I evidenced in photos?

Answer

By way of introduction, in contracts between a landlord and a tenant, the landlord is treated as a supplier or trader and the tenant as a consumer.  This means that the landlord and his agent are bound by the various ‘consumer’ rules, which require traders to act in good faith and to properly disclose all relevant matters before the start of the contract.

Let’s take a look at your questions.

1 The unpaid bill

I assume here you are referring to the gas bill which was sent to you by the landlord.  I agree that the landlord is in breach of the terms of the agreement by failing to provide you with the information that you need to get the bill put in your name.  I also note that the current arrangement may put you in a difficult position as regards negotiating a new contract with a gas supplier.  However, you have presumably been using gas while you have been living in the property, so it is not entirely unreasonable that you should pay for this gas – for the period of your tenancy.

However, you could point out to the landlord that there is nothing in the contract about your reimbursing him for utilities.  As regards the clause he has drawn to your attention, this is on the basis that he is ‘entitled to do anything at the cost or expense of the Tenant’.  Whereas in fact, the contract did not entitle him to arrange for the gas supply, on the contrary, it required you to arrange this.  If he had a pre-existing contract he wanted you to be bound by, he should have told you.  The fact that this was not done puts him in the wrong.

2. Am I in breach of the contract?

From what you have said, it does not look as if you are in breach.  If you were not made aware of the situation regarding the gas, that is the landlord’s fault rather than yours.  The contract told you to make your own arrangements for services, not to reimburse the landlord.

Also, if he asked you to sign a contract which required you to do something (ie arrange for services in your own name), he should not, by his actions (or non-action) prevent or make it difficult for you to do this.

You may also be able to complain about (or to) the agents, as they should have made you aware of this when you were signing up to the tenancy – as presumably your dealings when signing up were with them.

3. Can the landlord deduct the cost of the bills from the deposit?

If the landlord wants to make a deduction from your deposit which you do not agree with, then this can be challenged, and the dispute referred to adjudication.  All three traditional deposit schemes run free adjudication services (although this is not always free with ‘alternative’ schemes).  The question of who is in the right will then be one for the adjudicator to decide.

My view, though, is that you probably will have to pay something for the gas for the period of time you were using the supply.  You would need to satisfy yourself, however, that the sum charged was ONLY for the period of time when you were in occupation and actually using the gas supply and was for a reasonable amount.

4. Can the landlord shut off supply?

No.  Your landlord is NOT entitled to shut off the supply.  If he does this, that would be harassment which is illegal under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.

You would be entitled to go to court for an injunction ordering the landlord to put the supply back on and compensation for the period of time when you were without the service.  The fact that your landlord has even threatened this puts him seriously in the wrong.

5. What is my legal position?

I think you are largely in the right (based on what you have said), although I think, ultimately, you will have to reimburse the landlord for the gas used by you.  You were clearly misled at the start of the tenancy about the gas contract.

6. Liability for existing damage evidenced by photos

So far as the pre-tenancy damage evidenced by your photographs is concerned, again, if the landlord seeks to charge you for that damage, you will be able to challenge the deduction and ask that the matter be referred to adjudication.

The landlord cannot expect you to compensate him for items that were damaged before you took possession of the property.

However, if the landlord’s inventory clerk state that the items were undamaged at the time of their inspection, you will have to prove that this was not the case at the time you took over the property at the start of your tenancy.  It is, therefore, important that you hang on to your photographs and any other evidence you may have, as you will need it then.

Some general advice

I am assuming in this advice that you wish to continue living at the property and do not wish to end the contract.  In which case, your landlord cannot force you to move out against your will, and this is an empty threat.

There are only two ways that landlords can recover vacant possession of their property under the law;

• By the tenants moving out, or
• By obtaining a Court Order for possession and then using the County Court bailiffs or High Court Enforcement Officers.

So although the contract can be ended early if you both agree, if you don’t want to agree (and you don’t have to), your landlord cannot force you.  ‘Mutually’ means both of you!

Apart from  your concerns about the pre-tenancy damage not covered in the report (presumably you mean the inventory report) – which I cover at 6 above, there are two main issues

• You were not properly informed of the situation regarding the gas supply before you  entered into the contract, and
• Your landlord’s threats to evict you for non-payment and to cut off your supply.  Hopefully, you have these threats in writing.

Assuming negotiations prior to signing the tenancy were carried out with the landlord’s agents, I think you could justifiably complain to them that they did not represent the true situation to you at that time.

It sounds as if you have suffered loss as a result of this as

• you are not able to negotiate properly for a new gas contract, and
• in the meantime, you are being charged by the landlord on the basis of charges which have never been agreed with you.

You could also point out to them that your landlord is

• Threatening to cut off supply – which is illegal, and
• To evict you after service of a section 8 notice – when you are not in arrears of rent.

So far as the notice is concerned – normally, when landlords serve a section 8 notice, this is based on the mandatory rent arrears ground.  There is no mandatory ground for possession based on non-payment of a utility bill.  There is a ground for possession based on breach of contract, but it is ‘discretionary’ only.  It is inconceivable that a judge would evict someone in your position who is only trying to comply with the terms of their tenancy agreement.

So when writing to the agents, you could complain about the misrepresentation made by them (which could form the basis of a formal complaint to their Property Redress Scheme) and ask them to resolve the situation with the landlord for you.

If you want further information, note that the Renters Guide website has detailed guidance on what tenants can do if threatened with eviction and also has guidance on where you can find further advice and help.

Here is our weekly Newsround, with all the latest in housing news. We start this week with some HMO news.

Consultation launched on HMO council tax

Landlord Zone report that the Government has launched its new consultation to hopefully reform the way HMO’s are valued for council tax.

This should make sure that HMO properties are rated as one property with one council tax band rather than the way Portsmouth City Council put forward proposals to tax HMO’s for each individual room.

Fifty other councils are considering doing the same.

The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are now seeking the views of landlords with several different options, but one being forcing the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to consider an HMO as a ‘single dwelling’.

One landlord in Portsmouth had his HMO’s re-banded making his 68 bedrooms individual properties giving the council an extra eye-watering £72,000 a year. The Government has said it wants to

provide greater certainty and consistency in the way that accommodation in the HMO sector is banded for council tax, and to ensure that HMOs are banded as one property and have one council tax band, other than in exceptional circumstances

We stay with the Government where it seems that their Boiler Scheme is not going to plan.

Low take up for Boiler Upgrade Scheme

The government’s ‘Boiler Upgrade Scheme’ which was launched in May 2022, offers grants to help both homeowners and landlords switch to low carbon heating systems.

It appears that there has been a very low take-up, according to Lord Callanan, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. He says that only half of the allocated budget has been used so far, and the Government’s target is unlikely to be met by 2028.

This will also impact on the limited amount of installers to cater for implementing low-carbon heating going forward past 2028.

Public awareness is still woefully low on low-carbon heating systems, and there is a shortage of heat-pump installers. This is affecting the take-up of technologies like heat pumps, where upfront costs are too high for many to bear, even with the help of a grant.

The committee is asking for the government to give more clarity on feasible options for low-carbon heating via a policy framework along with extending the scheme. They also call for a review on EPC certificates

Correct the Energy Performance Certificates methodology so that certificates properly reward households for making the switch to low-carbon heating and flawed EPC recommendations cease being a barrier to Boiler Upgrade Scheme eligibility.

You can read the full article here.

Tenants evicted in favour of Airbnbs

Landlord Today reports that tenants are being unfairly evicted under Section 21 notices so that the properties can be turned into holiday lets and Airbnbs according to Labour MP, Luke Pollard for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport. He said

The pandemic turbocharged the housing crisis in rural areas, especially in Devon and Cornwall. Families are being turfed out of their private rented homes under section 21 notices so that they can be turned into second homes and Airbnbs.

It is time not only for increased council tax on second homes but for a proper licensing regime, so that communities can decide how many second homes should be in their community, to stop them being hollowed out.

Rachel Maclean, the housing minister, said that this was being looked at and will form part of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill in the form of registration of second homes. She responded by saying

We understand that, naturally, people want to go on holiday to beautiful areas, but there is an impact on communities. We need the registration scheme so that we understand and better mitigate those issues.

She further re-assured a North Norfolk MP that

The new council tax second homes premium will enable councils, particularly in areas such as his with a strong tourism industry, to generate significant additional funding for local services. If they introduce the maximum premium, they will benefit from double the council tax revenue.

Landlords need to act on mould and damp

Citizens Advice is calling for the government to be tougher on landlords to tackle mould and damp and to act now on making rented homes more energy efficient.

They claim that 1.6m children are living in rented homes with damp, mould and excessive cold. Furthermore, 2.7m homes are experiencing these issues now.

Rented homes are 73% more likely to have damp in their homes as the rented home is more likely to be of a lower energy efficiency rating of D or lower.

It wants the government to increase the amount that a landlord has to pay to on energy improvements from currently £3,000.00 to £10,000.00 and for all new private rented properties to be an EPC rating of C by 2025, with existing ones by 2028.

Gillian Cooper, from the Citizens Advice says

Every week we hear stories of people living in cold, damp and mouldy properties they can’t afford to heat properly.  It’s shameful that more than 20 years since legislation came into force to reduce fuel poverty and improve the energy performance of homes, people are still suffering.

Improving energy efficiency in privately rented homes has never been more urgent. It’s the step needed to keep people’s essential bills low, while also helping to protect their mental and physical health.

Citizens Advice charity are also calling for the government to deliver ‘Awaab’s Law’ to force landlords to promptly fix damp and mould when it appears in rented properties.

This law has come about as a result of two year old Awaab Ishak’s death in 2020 which was caused by ‘extensive’ mould in his social housing flat. You can read more here.

Landlords selling up is not an issue

A new survey has found that only 7% of landlords plan to sell up in the next year and 71% plan to retain their portfolio and even expand it, according to a poll from Leaders Romans Group.

Those selling up are doing so because of the imminent Renters Reform Bill, interest rates and energy costs.

However, the NRLA claim 30% of landlords plan to either cut their portfolio or sell up completely again due to planned government changes.

Alison Thompson, Leaders MD of lettings says

The government must realise that the housing crisis, specifically the under-supply of rental units, can’t be resolved by penalising the already stretched PRS. Instead, it should reconsider proposals to require rented properties to have an EPC rating of C, plans to ditch Section 21 and assured shorthold tenancies.

You can read more here.

Snippets

Labour’s ‘a home for a £1’ idea mocked by leading agent
Landlord accreditation service to roll our to nearby councils
Perfect storm as landlords quit and social housing volumes fall
SCAM alert: landlord and agent pics being used to lure rental ripoff victims
Mayor demands powers to freeze private rents – yet again
York landlord group says ‘collaboration not conflict wat forward on HMO licencing

Newsround will be back next week.

If you are looking to take in a lodger to make some extra cash, we have a lot of help for you.

The Lodger Landlord website

First – you should read the Lodger Landlord website as this has free guidance on being a lodger landlord with guidance on the law, the legal obligations you need to comply with, and what you should do when they leave (or if they refuse to leave!).

We have recently done a refresh of the site, and the information has been updated.

Click here for the site

Lodger forms

We have a number of useful forms for lodger landlords, which are available via our associated Your Law Store website, which mostly sells lodger-related forms.  All forms include guidance notes.

Our Lodger agreements and Lodger Packs have long been popular but we now have the following additional forms:

Lodger forms for Wales

Although the law on lodgers has not fundamentally changed with the introduction of the new housing law regime in Wales on 1 December, the terminology has.  There are also some other significant differences.  So we have now created new lodger forms for use in Wales, including:

• A Welsh lodger agreement
• A Welsh lodger forms pack
• A Welsh lodger forms pack with the Welsh Lodger Agreement
• A Welsh Monday to Friday lodger agreement
• A Welsh forms pack  with the Monday to Friday Agreement

Click here for the Welsh Lodger forms

Permission pack for tenants’ lodger:

Normally landlords prohibit tenants from taking in a lodger.  This useful pack of forms contains a permission form which a landlord can use to amend their tenancy agreement to permit their tenant to have a lodger, a lodger agreement and detailed instructions.

Find out more here

There is also a version to use in Wales which can be found on the Wales page.

Other lodger forms:

Deed of guarantee
Right to Rent checklist and record (not applicable in Wales)
Data information notice (to help compliance with the data protection rules)
Inventory form
Pet permission form

Letters packs

Drafts of letters you can use.  The reference letters are also included in the Lodger packs.

Reference letters pack
Asking your lodger to leave letters

If there are other lodger related forms which people need, let us know and we will draft them up and add them to the site.

Find Your Law Store here

Welcome to our weekly Newsround, where we give you all the housing news that has been trending in the media this week.

Fraudulent tenancy applications on the rise

It appears that tenants are getting more creative with their earnings in order to secure tenanted properties.

Goodlord, a lettings platform has stated that there has been a clear increase in tenants lying about their income in order to afford higher rents. This is due to both the chronic lack of houses on the letting market and the high cost of living.

Out of some 300,000 tenancy applications it was found that one in 1,000 were fraudulent of which 54% involved payslip fraud. This causes landlords to have rent voids and agents loose out on commission.

Furthermore, guarantors on tenancies has also increase from 12% in November 2021 to just under 15% in November 2022, improved technology has also made it harder for fraudsters to fake documents.

But lying about income is alot harder. Blake Richmond of Goodlord said

It’s a growing problem as tenants are competing hard with other renters and want to show landlords they are in the best financial position possible.

It seems a landlord or agent can no longer rely on just instinct. You can read more here.

London sees highest exodus of landlords

New stats show according to a report by Property Industry Eye that renters are leaving London at the highest rate in a decade. This is due to being priced out of the lack of decent affordable rental houses and the cost of living. In 2022 40% of tenants left London whereas 10 years ago it was only  28%. Experts do not expert this trend stop anytime soon.

Working remotely can enable tenants to move out further into the outer counties.

Hamptons have said that landlords are exiting the private rented sector at the highest rate in three years resulting in 66 fewer properties up for rent per day. David Fell of Hamptons predicted that landlords are likely to continue selling more properties than they buy in the year ahead. This is due to much new legislation and soaring mortgage rates.

The Government has been urged to do more are the rental supply continues to dry up.

Government needs to take action

Despite strong demand for rented properties 30% of landlords have said that they are planning on cutting their portfolios in 2023, which is at its highest level in over six years, and only 9% planning to increase their portfolio which is down from 14% in 2021.

Coupled with this, the NRLA has found that 63% of landlords have buy-to-let mortgages on at least one property and face significantly higher costs now and in the immediate future.

NRLA argues that the mismatch between the demand for, and supply of rented housing, is, in part, a consequence of higher borrowing costs. Ben Beadle, chief executive, said

It is time the government stepped in and accepted calls by the NRLA, the Select Committee and others for tax measures to encourage the supply of homes to rent. Without this, renters face a bleak future as finding somewhere to live becomes increasingly harder.

You can read more here.

Landlords are acting on energy efficiency

Many landlords are now making energy efficiency improvements to their rented properties, according to new research carried out by Shawbrook. 21% of tenants have asked landlords to improve their properties.

Shawbrook have found that landlords are spending, on average £8,900 on improvements which is more than they had expected to spend. There are still some landlords out there who do not have any idea where to start making energy-efficient measures.

Under current regulations, landlords have to meet an EPC rating of C by April 2025 and do not have to spend any more than £3,500 on upgrade work to meet an EPC rating of E. New changes could see all rental properties at an EPC rating of C by 2028, with an increased spend capped at £10,000.

Emma Cox, managing director of real estate at Shawbrook, says

It’s likely that efficiency standards will become tougher in the future, which is just one of the reasons that landlords should take note of tenant’s requests and start making a plan. As trends now point towards tenants favouring more energy efficient properties, these changes should not just be seen as a tick-box requirement by landlords, but also a worthwhile investment.

If tenants feel their accommodation is more cost efficient and sustainable, they will be more likely to stay, which in turn will benefit landlords.

Energy efficiency remains high on everyone’s agenda, and decisions from the Government are required sooner rather than later.

Snippets

Renting ‘ruins retirement for single people and self-employed’ – claim
Home Office says landlords do not ‘systematically discriminate’ against
Tax shock for holiday let owners when rates kicks in
Tax and Compulsory Purchase threats to private landlords – new report
Latest: Official ‘property portal’ being tested by landlords prior to launch
Landlords set to pass on mortgage rate hikes to tenants 
Foxtons reveals how many renters compete for each property

Newsround will be back next week.

There seems to be a certain amount of confusion over the transition arrangements for tenancies (now called occupation contracts) in Wales and what the notice periods are.

I am going to attempt to wade through the morass of regulations in this post and try to make sense of it all.

Tenancies after 1 December 2022

All tenancies which existed as at 1 December 2022 will have converted automatically to occupation contracts on that date.  The new contract will be a mixture of the original tenancy terms and the new Welsh prescribed terms where these are

• Fundamental terms which cannot be changed, or
• Fundamental terms which can only be changed if it is in the tenant’s interest (which the comparable term if any, in the pre 1/12/22 contract may not be).

Welsh landlords have the unwelcome task of preparing and then serving on their tenants (now called contract holders) a statement telling them what the terms of their new contract are.

I have to say that the Welsh government seems to be extremely blase about what I and many consider to be an extremely difficult task.  Even for experienced lawyers.  Very few ‘ordinary’ landlords will feel happy or competent to carry out this drafting exercise.

So I suspect that many landlords will seek to get their contract holders to sign a completely new contract instead.

Signing a new or substitute contract instead of serving a written statement

When I attended an NRLA webinar with Simon White of the Welsh government, I got the impression that this would be an acceptable way of dealing with things.

However, since then, I have been referred to Schedule 12 s11, which says:

Written statement of converted contract and provision of information
11 (1) The landlord must give the contract-holder under a converted contract a written statement of the contract before the end of the period of six months starting with the appointed day (“the information provision period”).

And then goes on to say that this changes the effect of s31 of the Act, which requires the written statement to be provided within 14 days.

So hopefully, landlords signing up existing tenants to a new contract in order to avoid the dreaded drafting exercise of creating a converted contract will not find themselves being subject of tenants’ claims to court for the penalty for non-compliance after 1 June.

An argument in support of such a claim could be that s32 of Schedule 12 says:

(1) If after a converted contract ends there are one or more substitute contracts, for the purposes of this Schedule (except paragraph 28), the substitute contract is (or the substitute contracts are) to be treated as if they were the same tenancy or licence as the converted contract.

And that a written statement must be served under s11 above.  And also, that Schedule 12 s14 says that a converted contract may not be varied before a written statement has been served.

However, I would hope that such an argument would fail.  It would seem pretty senseless to force a landlord to go through the arduous process of creating a conversion statement just so they can sign contract holders up to a new agreement.  Plus a new contract can’t really be described as a ‘variation’,

So  I would hope any Judges faced with this argument would reject it.

Lets now take a look at

The transition arrangements for eviction.

The Welsh Government have a FAQ page which discusses these issues here.

This deals with the following:

No fault notices for periodic tenancies / occupation contracts

For contracts signed before 1 December, and which are periodic tenancies that convert to periodic standard contracts on that date, a two-month no-fault notice period will initially continue to apply after 1 December. However, this notice period will increase to six months, from 1 June 2023.

The form to use for this is form RHW17. This form states that it is for use when a landlord can use a two-month notice.  However, the form does not appear to state anywhere that this concession will end on 1 June 2003 and that after this, the notice period will be six months.

Some people are taking this as meaning that the two-month notice period will continue indefinitely.  However, the authority for  the change is found in Schedule 12 of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (the Act), which says at s 25A (s)(a):

(2) This Act applies as if—

the reference in section 174(1) (landlord’s notice: minimum notice period) to “six months” were, in relation to a notice given under section 173 during the period of six months starting with the appointed day, a reference to “two months”,

Fixed terms at conversion with a long period still to run

Although it looks as if signing tenants up to a new contract is acceptable, Landlords may feel that the struggle to create a conversion contract is worth the effort if there is a substantial period of the fixed term still to run.  As serving a conversion statement will put them in a better position.

The Welsh FAQ  states

A converted fixed term standard contract can be brought to an end in accordance with the notice period arrangements that applied prior to its conversion, provided a minimum two month notice period is provided. However, new fixed term standard contracts cannot generally be ended by issuing a Landlord’s Notice during the fixed term period.

Presumably, this means that if a fixed term contract as at 1/12/22 had two years left to run – a valid two-month s173 notice can be served two months before the fixed term ends.  But if a landlord issues a new contract for the remaining two years which the tenant signs, this will no longer apply.

So if the landlord decides, at the end of the two-year fixed term of the new contract, that they want the tenant to go,

• they will need to wait until the fixed term ends before serving their section 173 notice and
• that notice period will be six months rather than two.

So that it will take them longer to evict the contract holder than it would if they had served a conversion statement.

Landlords in this position will need to weigh up which is the worse prospect –

• waiting longer to start no-fault proceedings at the end of the fixed term or
• creating a written statement of the converted contract.

What happens at the end of a converted fixed-term tenancy?

The government FAQ says

A six-month no-fault notice period applies to all periodic standard occupation contracts which began on or after 1 December 2022. This includes periodic standard contracts that arise at the end of a fixed term standard contract (if the landlord doesn’t seek possession at the end of the fixed term by issuing a two-month no-fault notice during the fixed term)

The authority for this is s39(8) of Schedule 12 which says

This Schedule applies to a substitute contract which—

(a) arises under section 184(2) as if paragraph 25A(2)(a) were omitted;

Section 25A(2)(a) is the section which says that two months’ notice will apply during a converted contract until 1 June,

Meaning that a s173 notice will need to be a six months notice for new statutory periodic contracts following on from converted contracts, even if these are created before 1 June.

Don’t forget, by the way, that, as I discussed here, s184 requires landlords to serve a new written statement after the end of a fixed term and that the fundamental and supplementary terms applicable to periodic contracts will be applied ‘without modification’.

So, to avoid having to do this, landlords should consider including the terms of any subsequent periodic contract in their fixed-term conversion document in order to comply with s185.

What about other grounds for eviction?

I have been focusing on the no-fault eviction notices and notice periods.  However, if you are looking to evict for rent arrears, you should not have a problem under the new rules, so long as you remember that

• the notice to use is form RHW20 (section 8 notices will no longer apply) and that
• the notice will last for six months rather than the 12-month life of a section 8 notice.

S8 notices served before 1 December will remain valid for 12 months from service or until 31 May (whichever comes first) after which you should use the new forms.

This is under reg 3(2) of the The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (Saving and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2022, which I have only been able to find linked from here.

If you have any comments on any of the above, please use the comments section below.

And finally

I have to say that the new Welsh regulations, whatever the Welsh gov may say, seem to be to be unnecessarily complex and hard to follow.

I am constantly finding myself going round and round in circles trying to read the legislation and having to open ever more tabs and windows on my computer to allow me to check cross-referenced clauses.  Which has been known to cause my computer to crash!

I have no doubt that all this will have contributed to the exodus of landlords from Wales.

Another week and another Newsround and there is certainly no shortage of housing news. This week we start with the ongoing reform of EPC’s.

Government re-shuffle creates a new department

Grant Shapps has been given a new role in a new department following Rishi Sunak’s re-shuffle. A new department has emerged called Energy Security and New Zero and the rental sector has wasted no time in lobbying Mr Shapps.

Timothy Douglas Head of Policy & Campaigns at Propertymark whilst welcoming the new initiative fromthe Government said

Property agents are looking for clarity on how landlords, homeowners and businesses can meet energy performance targets. [We call] on local and central government to produce a coordinated strategy across the country which incorporates financial incentives, awareness raising and skills development to deliver the improvements that are needed. Improving the energy efficiency of housing and buildings is not only important to reduce fuel bills but is the right thing to do.

We look forward to working with the new department to ensure that the property sector can play its part in the UK becoming Net Zero by 2050.

Welcome to our first Newsround for February, giving you a roundup of items trending in the housing news this week.

PRS is vital for UK economy & social life

A new report based on a survey of 2,000 private renters that was commissioned by the NRLA has stated that the private rented sector has an important economic and social role to play in our country.

The report suggests that renters are far from feeling unhappy or trapped.  In fact,

• only one in ten (six per cent) of private renters want to switch to social rented housing, whilst
• three quarters (76 per cent) said they want to buy a home of their own at some point in the future, and
• less than one in five (17 per cent) would have done so already if they could.

Chris Walker, a Director at ChamberlainWalker Economics says  that the sector

has attributes that make it the tenure of choice for many private renters, and that a high-quality and well-provided PRS is likely to be a good thing both socially and economically.

41 per cent of private renters rated the affordability of their rents as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, with a further 38 per cent rating it as ‘fair’. Furthermore, 31% of renters saw job security as the biggest factor in deciding when to buy their own home. Where older renters are concerned, 48% aged 55 and older want to stay in the sector.

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the NRLA says

Today’s report makes clear the positive and vital role the rental market has to play in the economic and social life of the country.  Contrary to the rhetoric from many, for the vast majority of tenants their experience in rented housing is positive. This is the platform the Government needs to build upon to ensure a sector that works for renters and responsible landlords.

Landlords seeking to increase rents

Bank base rate interest rates have just gone up to 4%.  A forecast predicts that the base rate will hit 4.5% by mid 2023. A new survey out by Finbri details that if this is the case, then over half of landlords will be looking to increase their rents. This will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect to the housing supply within the PRS and some landlords looking to sell their investment properties.

The problem does not just end there. With higher inflation, there could be fewer investment opportunities for landlords, which could force landlords to consider other methods of investments to diversify and weather the looming recession. The survey suggests landlords may go looking at other options such as stocks and shares, hedge funds, and venture capital, to name just a few.

Finbri found that 44.66% of landlords plan to sell up or at least reduce their portfolio if the base rate reaches 4.5%, so looking at other options might not be such a bad idea to mitigate the effects of increasing rates.

Is this something, you, as a landlord, are considering?

Tory MP stands up for landlords

Andrew Lewer, a Tory MP has spoken out for landlords and called on the government to help landlords by reforming taxation. He wants to see a large increase in house building to help renters have more choice and supply. He says

Restrictions on mortgage interest relief and the imposition of a stamp duty levy on the purchase of homes to rent out have indeed made life more costly for landlords. Landlords are seeing the cost of their mortgages going up and it quickly becomes a far more financially prudent decision to sell their homes rather than deal with the burdensome and indeed confusing job of managing a buy-to-let.

Marry this to the uncertainty surrounding the government’s plans for the sector, whether in energy efficiency requirements or the ending of Section 21 repossessions, and you do not exactly have an attractive market.

He wants to see the additional homes stamp duty scrapped along with the unfreezing of Local Housing Allowance and future rental regulations that encourage long-term investment. You can read the full article here.

Build more homes

Andrew Lewer MP writes in more detail here about how the government need to review how the PRS is taxed and remove the stamp duty levy. He states that rents have increased by 4.2% over the last 12 months and blames this on supply and demand.  Tenant demand is now 46% above the five year average, while supply is down 38%. Citing this as a ‘chronic imbalance’. This makes renters’ life stressful finding homes and is due to ever increasing rents making it almost impossible for them ever to buy homes of their own.

He goes on to say that the lack of houses is down to the government who have discouraged investment in the PRS sector due to the tax system for buy-to-lets and other investors.

Andrew asks that the government start with a review of how this sector is taxed and remove the stamp duty levy. His statistics state that if the stamp duty levy was removed on homes that would be rented out then it would bring into fruition almost 900,000 new private rented homes over the next ten years, giving the government a 10bn revenue boost too. He acknowledges that the PRS is not full of property tycoons but private landlords letting just one property, who cannot shoulder all these rising costs and taxes.

He writes a compelling article and also acknowledges that repossession needs to be high on the agenda for the government to resolve for both the landlord and the tenant.

£50m housing scheme excludes private landlords

Landlord Today reports that The Welsh Government has launched a new ‘National Empty Housing Grant’ scheme that would see 2,000 empty properties brought back into use. Both home owners and prospective homes owners can apply for a grant up to £25,000 to improve energy efficiency and remove significant hazards. To qualify the property has to have been empty for 12 months and once the work is complete, it has to be used as a main residence for at least five years.

This is only open to owner-occupiers, social housing landlords, community housing and local authorities. The Leasing Scheme for Wales will run alongside this initiative which is for private landlords.

Propertymark supports this idea and says

We are pleased to see £50m has been designated to bringing empty homes back to life in Wales. This is something Propertymark has campaigned for as it will allow communities to bring desperately needed, unoccupied properties back into use. Wales also has the oldest housing stock, so it’s good to see recognition of the need for funding to improve energy efficiency in residential homes.

Councils causing HMOs numbers to decline

This post on LandlordZone reports that England’s HMO market has shrunk by more than 21,000 properties largely due to Council planning and licensing rules.

The largest reduction has been in the East Midlands (16%) and the North East (15.8%) but there are also big reductions in the South East (6.7%), London (5.2%) and the North West (1.6%).  Although London remains home to the greatest proportion of HMOs, accounting for 29% of England’s total stock.

Although HMOs are often unpopular with neighbours, it is often the only way that low-income people can afford to rent.  So this reduction is concerning.  See also this report which points out that banning student HMOs is causing big problems in the student market in St Andrews.

Snippets

Barclays to stop telling tenants credit card debt ‘helps them pass referencing’
Rent freeze backfires according to property portal analysis
Landmark ruling raises concerns over privacy ramifications for property developers
Rising number of tenants forced to leave Scottish private rental sector
Demand for energy efficient homes increases by over 20%
Strict guidelines for AirBnb and holiday let landlords set by York council
Why is the Founder of Property118 Selling His Best Property?
Can’t the Tories see that letting homeless charities close will cause more homelessness?

Newsround will be back next week.

Here is our roundup of posts for January 2023.

Tuesday 3rd January

The Landlord Law Blog Urban Myths

The first of my updated series on ‘Urban Myths’

Thursday 5th January

Can this tenant end his fixed-term tenancy early?

This was a question asked in my Blog Clinic

Friday 6th January

Landlord Law Newsround #273

Our first Newsround of the year

Tuesday 9th January

Urban Myth – a short let cannot be an AST

A question often asked – find out the answer here!

Friday 13th January

Landlord Law Newsround #274

More news from our weekly Newsround

Monday 16th January

Can a landlord object to tenants having people stay at the property?

A question asked in my Blog Clinic by a tenant

Thursday 19th January

Landlords! Looking to insulate your properties? Heed this warning….

Landlords let this story be a warning if you are having any works done

Friday 20th January

Landlord Law Newsround #275

We report on the week’s trending housing news

Friday 27th January

Landlord Law Newsround #276

Our last Newsround for January

Monday 30th January

Is this guarantor liable for increased rent in a periodic contract?

This question was asked in my Blog Clinic this week

Further Reading

The Landlord Law News Blog

• Announcing our conversion contracts page for Welsh landlords
• Landlord Law Welsh Periodic tenancy agreement now available to members
• The Landlord Law Quick Guides
• The Welsh Checklists

Landlord Law Podcast

• Looking to housing law developments in 2023

For more housing news, follow me on twitter and the Landlord Law Facebook page

Click here to get the weekly roundups sent direct to your email ‘in box’ every week – the easy way to keep up with what’s happening on the blog

I come across this view sometimes. Landlords telling me that their tenant has no right to stay on in their property because they (the landlords) only agreed to let them live there for (say) six months.

In fact, in most cases, tenants are automatically granted a new tenancy, if they stay on after the end of their fixed term.

Unfair to landlords?

I can understand why landlords feel that the law favours tenants more than them. Tenants can leave without penalty at the end of a fixed term, and don’t even have to give the landlord any warning that they are leaving (although it is a different matter if they stay on).

However, if the tenant does not want to move out, the landlord must serve a two months notice (six months now in Wales), get a court order for possession and then instruct the County Court bailiffs before he can get his property back.

However, the reason for this is to protect tenants as, after all, this is their home.

How it works

With assured and assured shorthold tenancies (i.e. most of those which started after 15 January 1989) the  Housing Act 1988 specifically provides that if tenants stay on after the end of their fixed term, the law will create a new tenancy, a ‘statutory tenancy’ (because it is created by statue).  This is also the case with ‘occupation contracts’ in Wales.

This new tenancy will be a ‘periodic’ tenancy’, starting immediately after their fixed term ends, and will run on from month to month or from week to week, the ‘period’ depending on how their rent is paid. Apart from this, in England, all the terms and conditions of the preceding ‘fixed term’ tenancy will continue to apply.

In Wales, landlords may find that some of the terms and conditions in the new periodic contract have changed as discussed here.  Unless the terms of the potential statutory periodic contract are included in their fixed-term contract.  And  also, unless they have done this, landlords will need to serve a new contract.  But otherwise, the rules providing for a statutory periodic contracts are very similar.

And finally

So when landlords (and tenants) say that tenants staying on ‘do not have a tenancy’ this is not true.

They do. And so they are not squatters!

Are you a new landlord?
Or do you want to take over managing a property yourself from agents?
Or perhaps you are new to working at a letting agency?
Or maybe you work for a Local Authority and need training for your staff?

Whichever of these you are – my new Essential Law for Landlords virtual workshop will help you, or your staff, get to grips with the law and rented property.

I explain it a bit more in the video below:

Essential Law workshop details in a nutshell:

Date: 23 March 2023
Time: 10.30 am – 4.30 am (with an hour for lunch and two comfort breaks)
Price: £180 (£150 + VAT)
Trainer: Solicitor Tessa Shepperson
Location: Online only
CPD: Four hours (your certificate will be sent out if our system shows you attended)

To find out more and book your place:

Click here

Here is a question to the blog clinic from Tanya (not her real name), who is a tenant.

I agreed to be a guarantor for a family member and signed a fixed term contract for 12 months, 6 months, and then a further 12 months. The final fixed term ended in July 22 and I had decided I was not going to sign any further contracts to stand as guarantor.

I then found out from the tenant that the landlord had changed the tenancy to a periodic one as she was considering selling the property. The rent was also increased at the same time.

I emailed the landlord to say I wasn’t willing to carry on being guarantor during a periodic tenancy that could continue for months on end and as they had also increased the rent I understood that this was a variation in the contract and released me as guarantor.

The Landlord responded to say I was still guarantor and they had informed me at the beginning of the tenancy I would still be liable as guarantor if the tenancy converted to a periodic one which is an absolute lie.

I have read through all the contracts I signed, and there is nothing to state my liability extends beyond the term I signed for. Will I still be liable as guarantor if the tenant does not pay his rent or due to the variation in the contract, is it now null and void?

Answer

My view is that you will not be liable under this guarantee.  The main reason for this is that the rent increased.

You signed up to guarantee a tenancy at £X.  You did not sign up to guarantee a tenancy at £Y.

So the guarantee you signed is effectively ended with the increase in the rent.  For the guarantee to continue at the new rent, you would need to sign a new guarantee form.

It is a moot point whether the guarantee will extend beyond the fixed term of a tenancy, and it will depend on the wording of the guarantee.

Our Landlord Law guarantees provide for this, but we also provide for the guarantor to be able to end a periodic guarantee on two months’ notice.  Which makes it fair.

Contract terms are required to be ‘fair’ under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.  I do not think it would be considered fair for you to be held liable under a contract that can roll on indefinitely and which you cannot end. Particularly if the document gave an end date and did not warn you that it could continue beyond that date.

If there is nothing in the guarantee about subsequent periodic tenancies, then my view is that it will not continue.  Even if you disregard the unfair terms rules, the situation will be ambiguous at best and ambiguous contacts are generally interpreted against the party that provided the contract under a rule known as the Contra Proferentem Rule.

It is not up to the landlord to decide whether a guarantee is valid or not – that is the job of a judge if the case goes to court.  So if this landlord makes any claim against you I suggest that you tell him that you have had advice that the guarantee is no longer valid against you and that if he does not agree he can take you to court about it.

Go on to say that if he does take you to court and you win, you reserve the right to show your letter to the Judge and ask that he pay all your legal costs.

Welcome to another edition of our Newsround, and this week there is certainly no shortage varied housing news.

Big Issue founder calls for help for landlords

John Bird, the founder of the Big Issue is calling on ministers to help landlords financially in order to prevent rent rises and evictions.

He says

I’m not saying I am not concerned about people who can’t feed themselves or heat themselves, but the worst possible thing to add to that is if hundreds of thousands of people are made homeless …then it completely goes off the richter scale.

Shockingly, the number of homeless families is predicted to be a up by 32% from 2020. Councils have also been additional given funds to run more mediations between landlords and tenants in an effort to reduce evictions.

Meter tampering hits a new high

The energy crisis is seeing an shockingly high rise in the illegal tampering of energy meters that is putting not only the house where the meter is tampered with at risk but also neighbouring properties. The Electrical association Select and the Plumbing Employers Federation have issued this warning

Stealing energy in this way is a worrying and illegal practice, often encouraged by widely shared footage on social media. But it risks lives and can have fatal consequences for innocent people close by. Such services are often offered by unscrupulous individuals who will bypass services or devices for a fee. But often the methods they use are often extremely dangerous and they can have no, or very limited, knowledge of what they’re doing.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is now engaging directly with communities to try and stop this dangerous activity. You can read more here.

New Fire Safety Regulations come into Force

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force this week on 23 January 2023. This new legislation now requires the ‘responsible person’ of mid and high-rise blocks of flats to provide information such as electronic building plans to the fire and rescue services to help them with planning and other safety measures. Residents also need to be given fire safety instructions and information on fire doors.

For high rise blocks monthly checks are also now required on firefighting equipment held within the building such as firefighting lifts and equipment along with a secure information box. For mid-rise blocks annual checks are now required of the entrance doors and all fire doors quarterly. You can read more here.

Rogue HMO landlord lands high fine

Landlord Today reports how an HMO landlord has been hit with a fine of over £175,000 by the courts for running an unhabitable HMO with rats, no working kitchen, toilets or bathrooms, no fire alarms blocked escape routes, rubbish accumulation, water leaks and no gas or electrical certificates. Tenants paid £5,800 per month rent for their dilapidated housing that was in such a bad state an emergency prohibition order had to be served which closed the HMO down immediately leaving the council to emergency house the 18 tenants.

A council spokesperson said

It is unbelievable that in this day and age, these people were able to operate in such a heartless way, exploiting residents and providing such squalid living conditions.

The property is still up for sale.

Former Housing Ministers’ call for more house building

Four former housing ministers are stating that our lack of house building is what is forcing up high prices and are calling for a total rethink of the governments house building policies. Building needs to happen now and not just on brownfield sites. Their report, The Case for Housebuilding, identifies a huge drop on building rates since the 1960’s, it also states that as rents are rising steeply and now 30% of income is spent on rent compared to 10% back in the 1960’s.

The report states

The case for housebuilding is simple – without it, Britain will be a less productive, less equal, less fair and less happy country. Building more homes is the clearest way to boost economic growth and rebuild our economy.

You can read more here.

Rental Reforms threatens Higher Education

Groups representing universities and student education claim the rental reform plans seriously put at risk higher education. The new plans mean that all student lets will be open ended tenancies thus rendering landlords helpless to have accommodation ready and available again for the next academic year, unless the existing student tenants have officially handed in their notice to quit.

Without this certainty there will be a reduction in available accommodation says a letter to the Minister for the Private Rented Sector.

The groups rally for a change are the NRLA, Universities UK and the British Property Federation, they also say

A shortage of this accommodation has already led some academic institutions to call for a limit to be placed on student intakes for as long as the next five years. The proposed introduction of open-ended tenancies and inevitable reduction in housing supply is therefore likely to further constrain the expansion of the education sector, to the detriment of prospective students and wider society.

The organisations are asking the Government to extend the exemption from open-ended tenancies granted to Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) to all student housing. They argue that where a landlord rents their property to a group of students a fixed term tenancy agreement should be permissible.

Will the government listen?

Snippets

Rent Cap Minister and Shelter stopped from speaking with politicians in Scotland
Increase stamp duty for landlords say prominent Tory MP
Landlords warn that energy efficiency plans are ‘dead in the water’
42% of landlords claim they will buy property in 2023
UK faces chronic shortage of rental homes, alarming new data shows
Landlords with good EPC ratings get better mortgage deals

Newsround will l be back next week.