Another week and another Newsround, let’s see what has been in the news this week. We start with EPC news which is never far from the headlines.
Labour’s EPC plan confirmed
Labour has now confirmed its plans for rented properties and EPC requirements.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Under Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced this week that that rental properties will need to achieve a minimum of EPC grade C by 2030.
Ms Fahnbulleh has stated
We will require landlords to improve their properties to Energy Performance Certificate standard C by 2030. Ensuring warmer, healthier private rented homes will lift many families out of fuel poverty and reduce energy bills.
Ed Milliband, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary said that in doing this will ‘support more than three million people facing fuel poverty’.
Propertymark has hit back at the government saying that whilst they fully support more energy efficient homes, landlords need financial support by some means in order to meet this target. A poll back in February of this year found that 35% of landlords could not afford to meet the high upfront costs to upgrade their homes. A spokesperson said
Any future targets must be fully backed by legislation that incentivises and encourages people rather than penalising them.
Selective Licensing schemes & landlord costs soar
Landlords are now paying on average for a five-year licence fee of £700, according to a Freedom of Information request from Direct Line, and the number of selective licensing schemes has increased by % over the past two years.
20% of councils now operate licensing schemes for the private rented sector and as much as £20 million has been paid into licensing schemes by landlords in the last year, and in addition to this a further £2.5 million is paid in non compliance fines.
Fees vary considerably between councils with £550 in North Yorkshire to £12,90 in Leicester, some councils are better at enforcing their rules than others with Waltham Forest issuing 170 fines and Middlesborough issuing 128.
Direct Line advised there was a ‘growing burden from fines for non-compliance’. Landlords need to check regularly with their local authority to see if any new schemes are under consultation.
A reminder that Landlord Law has it’s own Local Authority Directory for information about licensing schemes and fees in your area.
Landlord banned from HMO sector
A Welsh landlord has been fined a staggering £5,088 with additional surcharges and banned from the sector for not having an HMO licence for three properties that he ran. Wales runs the Rent Smart Wales scheme and anyone renting a home must apply for a licence along with five hours training and comply with their code of practice. Once a licence expires it must be renewed immediately and Gareth Davies did not renew his licence and took nearly a year to do so.
As he now has a criminal conviction for not renewing, he has been told that next time he may not be granted a licence.
Lynda Thorne from Cardiff Council said
The implications go far beyond fines for this landlord.
OpenRent and Rightmove reach agreement
If you use OpenRent for your properties you may have been a bit worried by the recent spat between OpenRent and Rightmove when it looked for a while as if OpenRent customers would not be able to advertise their properties on Rightmove.
Thankfully, they have now reached agreement. If you are a self-managing agent who uses OpenRent, note that our Landlord Law service can help you keep track of all that regulation.
Snippets
Warning served to landlords over mouldy homes
Tenant who threatened gas engineer sent to fix boiler faces jail
Property trade bodies tell new Welsh Leader to reject rent controls
Record homeless figures in England prompt calls to tackle ‘national scandal’
New landlord database likely to improve rental sector, says legal expert
See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law
Newsround will be back next week