More and more landlords and agents are being prosecuted under the HMO licensing regulations. For example, a report in the Sikh Daily Times mentions two cases under the HMO legislation in Manchester. In cases heard 20 July 2009 at Leeds Magistrates Court, a landlord, Mrs Ghamar Gill, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs…
A new blog has recently been started by Kevin Firth, a director of Computershare, the company behind the Deposit Protection Service. The blog is called The Letting Protection Service Blog. There are only a few entries so far, but one of them has a little video, so it looks as if Kevin will be using…
I have just learned about this case decided at the end of June. Here Mrs Osborn was let down by her agents, Countrywide Residential Lettings who, despite having protected the deposit, had failed to serve notice on the tenants giving the prescribed information, or return the money within the proper period of time. As a…
I was a bit shocked, although I suppose not entirely surprised, to read in the excellent 4wallsandaceiling property tribes forum about what some greedy letting agents are doing to replace the renewal commission they are going to lose as a result of the decision in the OFT v. Foxtons case. They are contacting tenants and…
I have just read a report in the Times which makes it clear that the current problems in the courts due to underfunding are only going to get worse. The report states that Judges are having to sit longer hours and for more days, and that a recruitment ban on all but the most exceptional…
A newspaper report here, describes a survey in Toronto in Canada which shows that vulnerable people are regularly being discriminated against by landlords. To quote the article: To test landlord compliance, the centre created five “renter profiles” – a single mother with one child; a black single mother with one child; a single South Asian…
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Shoddy HMOs? Don’t blame the law, blame the enforcers
A recent article on the BBC news site, complains that landlords are avoiding the HMO licensing regulations by developing HMOs in buildings which do not come within the categories which require licensing, which in most cases requires a building to have three or more stories. Hence, the article implies, landlords are able to get away…