Tessa Shepperson Newsround #47

Another Friday Newsround.  Lets see what we can find.

Legal Aid For Housing?

The first item is a bit of good news (maybe) for tenants.  Labour have pledged to restore Legal Aid for housing.

Of course, this is dependant upon a Labour victory.  Plus it is dependant upon their actually being sufficient housing solicitors to provide the service.

The dramatic reduction of legal aid for housing has resulted in an equally dramatic reduction in housing solicitors.  Which may not be easy to resolve as most of those housing solicitors are now doing better-paid work in another part of the profession.

However, I am pleased that Labour are hoping to do this.  Jeremy Corbyn is the ONLY politician I know who really seems to understand how important legal aid is.

It’s not there to enrich ‘fat cat’ lawyers as the public seems to assume (chance would be a fine thing, the pay rates are pitiful) but to help the public.  So good for him.  In this respect anyway.

Safer Renting

Leading on from this, readers may be interested to see this report in the Guardian from Roz Spencer (who works with our own Ben Reeve Lewis) about the work of her organisation, Cambridge House.  She says

Sadly, more than three-quarters of our work, as a social enterprise helping private sector tenants, is with people who are imminently threatened with or who have actually been put on the street by landlords.

In particularly unpleasant cases, landlords have changed the locks while their tenants are out shopping, on the school run or at work; in some cases, they even throw tenants’ possessions away. This is both cruel and criminal.

Going on to say

Given the cuts to legal aid in recent years and the lack of housing solicitors, most renters have no chance of using the courts for protection, which is where services like ours step in.

Personally, I would prefer to live in a society where tenants are not evicted illegally, and where even the police do not help landlords to do this.  The restoration of legal aid would help this.

A large fine for HMO breaches

Courts are at last handing out proper fines to rogue landlords who breach the HMO rules.

Leila Amjadi of Vertu Capital has been found guilty of 35 offences relating to HMO licensing and breaches of the HMO regulations and has been fined in total a whopping £182,314.90.

This consists of a £85,000 fine; costs of £22,975; a victim surcharge of £170; and financial compensation totalling £22,000 to 11 tenants.  Her company Vertu Capital has been found guilty of 21 offences and fined £52,000 plus a victim surcharge of £170. Which together make £182,314.90.

Robert James, director of housing at Birmingham City Council, said:

“This is the largest fine that Birmingham has seen for these type of offences, and it sends out a strong message to all landlords that Birmingham City Council will use all its enforcement powers to ensure that tenants are protected from rogue landlords who neglect their responsibilities.”

It is likely that the money will not be paid however as investigations by Property Industry Eye show that the company is in administration with a receiver appointed on March 23 this year.

Tenants starting to use Rent Repayment Orders

As well as suffering court and council fines, this report from Property Industry Eye shows that landlords must also watch out for tenants who are increasingly making applications for Rent Repayment Orders.  After issuing a FOI Eye learned that

The Government department revealed that 48 applications for RROs were made by tenants between April 2017 and the beginning of March 2018.

Of these 48, only 13 were approved, with the main reasons for approval concerning a failure to comply with a prohibition order or due to unlicensed houses in multiple occupation.

Tenants rights to apply for a RRO were boosted recently under a change in the law and they can now apply  if they can prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that their landlord has committed one of the following offences:

• Violence for securing entry
• Eviction or harassment of tenants
• Failure to comply with improvement notice
• Failure to comply with prohibition order
• Control or management of unlicensed HMO
• Control or management of unlicensed house
• Breach of banning order

Richard Tacagni, managing director of landlord regulation consultant London Property Licensing said:

“In my experience, very few people understand the risks associated with rent repayment orders.

“Any landlord can face having to repay up to 12 months’ rent either to the council or to the tenant.

“While councils can only claim back rent that has paid via housing benefit or universal credit, private tenants can apply for a rent repayment order if they have paid the rent themselves.

“It is something tenants are becoming more aware of and the sums involved can soon mount up – potentially tens of thousands of pounds.”

Note that we published an information post for tenants by Robert Mullarky of Anthony Gold here.

Fire safety costs

There have been many articles in the news about leaseholders being hit by the cost of re-cladding where cladding has been found not to be fire safe.

So let us pay tribute to at least one company, Barratt Developments, which has pledged to help. An article on the government website states that as the original developer they will cover future and backdated costs relating to employing a fire warden and the removal and replacement of unsafe cladding from this building at Citiscape development in Croydon.

Sajid Javid, said:

Other building owners and house builders in the private sector should follow the example set by Barratt Developments to protect leaseholders from costs and begin essential fire safety works. I want to see all leaseholders in this position get the peace of mind they deserve and I am keeping this under review.

Whether they will (or can afford) to do this is another matter.

Long Term Empty Homes

House of Commons has given a second reading to the Rating (Property in Common Occupation) and Council Tax (Empty Dwellings) Bill – which will allow councils to charge double the rate of Council Tax on homes left empty for years.

Local authorities can currently levy a 50 % premium.  Mind you this will not deter wealthy billionaires who buy posh flats in London and then leave them empty.

You can read the report of the reading and speeches here.

Snippets

• The ICO has fined The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea £120,000 for releasing names of 943 empty property owners in the borough.  The information was given to three journalists who had requested statistical information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This was probably one of the articles that resulted.
• Property Industry Eye reports that a lack of affordable homes is causing problems for firms trying to recruit and retain staff (what a surprise)
• The Government has issued guidance on letting property to the ‘Windrush generation’ (in England) but it has been described as a “fudge” by housing lawyer David Smith

Newsround will be back next week.