After weeks of relatively slow and repetitive housing news this week headlines with the long-awaited Renters’ Reform Bill.
So we kick off with that and then take a look at what’s also happened in other housing news.
Renters Reform Bill
The Renters Reform Bill finally hit parliament this week with a strong promise to make renting fairer for tenants by abolishing Section 21, more rights for tenants to have pets and faster redress for landlords who have anti-social tenants.
It claims to be a reform for both tenants and landlords and whilst we will see Section 21 go the legislation has strengthened Section 8. Landlords will be required to join a landlord redress scheme.
You will find an outline of the proposals on two Nearly Legal posts part 1 and part 2.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove says
Our new laws introduced to Parliament today will support the vast majority of responsible landlords who provide quality homes to their tenants, while delivering our manifesto commitment to abolish Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions.
Letting with pets could benefit landlords
With the news that the renters reform bill landlords must not unreasonably withhold consent for a pet the Dogs Trust and Cats Protection claim that 46% of landlords would allow a pet whilst 54% would not, and most landlords just follow the line of a standard ‘no’ without looking at each request on its own merits.
However The Dogs Trust and Cats Protection who have been campaigning for many years on this now claim that allowing pets can have benefits to the landlord too as tenants tend to stay longer in a property if they are allowed to keep a pet.
Actually, though the new law is in reality not much different from the old.
Check your letting agents knowledge of the law
It seems that there are quite a few letting agents out there that are putting landlords at risk of heavy fines and failing foul of the law and prosecution, due to their lack of legal knowledge on HMO regulations and legal requirements for letting a property.
Phil Turtle Landlord Licensing & Defence’s compliance expert says
There’s a danger of a landlord switching to an incompetent agent who will not be much help because agents don’t always understand the law and regulations. Some agents, as a result, get landlords into trouble and face fines.
That might be hard to believe, but there’s no doubt that half of the landlord clients we deal with have been dropped into trouble with local authorities by their letting agent.
Landlords need to check their letting agents out prior to signing up, ask for other landlords views who use that agent. Both landlords and letting agents can face fines of £30,000 on licensing issues alone.
We have a lot of guidance for HMO landlords on Landlord Law and you can see all our content here.
Crackdown on illegal rent-to-rent landlords
Housing Minister Baroness Scott of Bybrook has promised to crack down on dodgy rent to rent landlords who flout the housing laws where some landlord schemes evade prosecution and laws.
They have given councils more powers to maintain standards and hand out large penalties on landlords who rent out sub-standard accommodation.
Baroness Scott of Bybrook says
We are also exploring how we can strengthen local authorities’ investigative and enforcement powers, as part of our forthcoming reforms of the private rented sector. This will help councils to identify culpable landlords and ensure that they can be punished through prosecutions, fines, rent repayment orders and potential banning orders.
She also added that the new property portal announced in the renters reform bill this week will also help local authorities identify illegal schemes quicker.
Landlords considering rent to rent can find out how to do it properly with our course here.
Sharp increase in Section 21 evictions
Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action has said that there has been a year on year 91% increase in the number of Section 21 notices being served as many landlords who have anticipated the changes under the renters reform bill serve section 21 notices now, planning to sell up.
He says
I have no doubt that as the date for the end of Section 21 nears, more landlords will start to panic, which will lead to more good tenants having to leave their homes. The government has made reference to digitising more of the process for those evictions which do end up in court, by way of speeding up the process. Whilst this is positive, greater reform of the court system will be required if landlords are to have confidence to remain in the market.
Emily Williams a residential researcher at Savills says
What it’s really going to do is make landlords much more careful about who they rent to and really do their due diligence on their tenants, It’s probably going to make it tougher for people who are either on universal credit or have to use local housing allowance to secure a private tenancy.
Decent Homes Standard would be higher say Labour
Labour maintain that they would introduce a legally binding ‘Decent Homes Standard 2′ . They claim that would give tenants far more rights and greater security through a renters’ charter, giving longer term affordable tenancies, the right for reasonable alterations and a national register for landlords.
They also say they would promise that every homes is at the minimum of an EPC C rating within a decade. Home ownership is also high on their manifesto with a 70% target by helping first time buyers.
In a recent report it is also reported that Labour would reject London Mayor, Sadiq Khan’s call for a rent freeze in London. They fear that this could replicate what has happened in Scotland during their rent freeze which put off investors.
Empty housing sitting under the radar
Property 118 has investigated the high number of houses that just sit empty across the UK and claim that the governments figure of 250,000 empty homes is massively underquoted.
It does not, they say, take into account houses that are excluded from the list such as new build homes that do not sell immediately, homes where the owner has died and, to an extent furnished second homes and holiday homes of which there are 257,000.
Mr Bailey of Action on Empty Homes says
The figure is over a million. Every year when the number rises the government tell us about the measures, they have in place to help, like increased council tax for empty homes. Yet still, year after year, we tell them that these aren’t the right measures and still every year the numbers keep on rising.
Interestingly they do not feel that using compulsory purchase orders is the way to go either, but using a ‘no fault Empty Dwelling Management Order’ is.
He goes on to say
This allows councils to let homes to those in housing need, without having to compulsory purchase them. This power exists but is currently under-used because councils have to wait years to use it and it won’t get granted until a home is falling down, being vandalised or has turned into a crime hotspot such as a ‘crack house’ or brothel.
Like most councils and their residents, we think this is waiting too long and puts an unreasonable barrier in the way of better housing management.
Is this the way forward?
EPC’s are inaccurate
There has been more research carried out on homes that signifies that the EPC rating of a home has no impact or correlation with the energy performance of the home.
A study by Switchee captured the time it took for a property to lose 1 degree of heat of internal air temperature when the heating was off, and this had no impact with the energy performance of that home. Furthermore EPC C and D are the worst performing homes with an average heat loss rate of 4 hours. This means that the owner must heat their home for an average of 1 hour 48 minutes longer than those with a low Heat Loss Rate. It also identified that was does matter most is the level of insulation and ventilation that really counts.
Tom Robins CEO of Switchee says
We’ve analysed over 8 billion data points and these findings are a concern. While EPC scores measure the energy efficiency of a property by assessing various aspects of its construction, design and performance, our Heat Loss Rate findings show the true effectiveness of insulation and the importance of an airtight property.
It’s blown the premise that properties with a high EPC rating would lose heat the slowest, and vice versa, out of the water. Social housing providers must ask themselves if they are confident that they can rely on EPC ratings alone to assess the energy efficiency of their housing stock. Our data suggests not.
HMO rules to be relaxed
Michael Gove is set to relax much of the governing regulations on HMO’s if they house asylum seekers.
These proposed changes have been outlined in the Houses of Multiple Occupation (Asylum-Seeker Accommodation) Regulations. These new rules would exempt landlords in England and Wales who offer asylum accommodation from having to have electrical safety certificates, minimum room sizes and not having to register as a HMO or get any relevant licenses with their local authority.
This move has already had a lot of criticism with campaigners fearing that they could be deemed unfit for habitation and lower housing standards.
Mary Atkinson, a campaigns manager says
HMO licences exist to make sure that accommodation meets basic levels of safety and sanitation. However, much asylum accommodation already falls below these standards, with people seeking sanctuary housed in cramped, windowless rooms smaller than prison cells.
Without HMO licences, already traumatised people will be at risk of living in places that are unfit for human habitation.
The government denies that it would lower housing standards and says
By temporarily removing this licensing requirement, we will be able to acquire more suitable long-term accommodation while continuing to meet our legal duty of care.
Snippets
Starmer ‘set to U-turn on rent controls’ as London Mayor pleads for more powers
BTL landlords urged to be wary when instructing a letting agent
Labour to ‘go further than Tories’ with harsher Decent Homes Standard
Tory peer’s family used no-fault eviction against mould complaint tenant
Housing crisis drives £1bn-a-year boom in UK self-storage
Newsround will be back next week.