Welcome to our weekly Newsround where we bring you all the latest trending housing news.
Grenfell Inquiry Report published
This was published on Wednesday 4 September and is the final report from this long running (7 years) inquiry.
The report was deeply critical of all involved in the remedial work to the tower, including the suppliers of the dangerous panels, the various regulators, the Government, in particular the Cameron government for its policy of deregulation (which was partly responsible for fire safety failures), the architects and the Local Authority and their tenant management organisation.
The report ended with 58 recommendations, which government is under pressure to implement. Sir Keir Starmer made a statement to Parliament where he promised to change things so this could never happen again (although he stopped short of promising to implement all the recommendations).
The Grenfell residents are calling for prosecutions but the CPS say that as they need to review the Inquiry Report ‘line by line’ these are unlikely before 2027.
We are publishing a three-part series on the report and situation generally, the first part can be found here.
New appeal is won on rent to rent agreement
A landlord has won an appeal this week in which could affect all rent to rent agreements and rent repayment orders going forward.
Amlendu Kumar has had his appeal against a rent repayment order upheld when a rent to rent company (Like Minded Living Ltd) that he had a contract with changed his Tooting property into an illegal HMO by allowing 5 different individual tenants to live in the property despite a clause in his contract with Like Minded Living Ltd stipulating no more than three individual tenants to live in the property.
Following a landmark case in 2023 only the landlord who receives the rent, the immediate landlord (LML) rather than the superior landlord (Amlendu Kumar) can have a rent repayment order made against them. However as rent was still being paid to LML after the contract ended the courts deemed that Kumar had now become the immediate landlord and he was served a rent repayment order for 60% of the annual rent (£7549.25).
Kumar appealed and won with the Upper Tribunal ruling that the landlord was not liable for the RRO as he did not receive any of the rent payments LML did, and therefore Kumar had a ‘reasonable excuse for unknowingly having control of an unlicensed HMO’. Kumar had no reason to be suspicious of LML as they had been recommended to him by a well known letting agent.
Tenants on a financial knife edge if they fall ill
A stark survey carried out by LifeSearch claims that only 14% of renters would be able to pay their rent for more than three months if they were unable to work.
The survey asked 1000 renters and only 29% would have sufficient funds saved be able to pay their next months rent if they became ill and were not paid from their work.
LifeSearch said that there is now a broader population of renters and renters’ protection is very much in the news but the ‘financial knife edge on which many renters are living has gone under the radar’.
Wales brings in planning consent for short term lets
It is now mandatory in Gwynedd, Wales for owners of second homes and holiday lets to obtain planning permission before changing the use of a property. A Gwynedd Council spokesperson said
By introducing an Article 4 Direction, the Council will have a new tool to try to control the impact of second homes and holiday accommodation. The change will require owners to submit a planning application for changing the use of residential properties into second homes or short-term holiday accommodation.
Gwynedd Council are the first authority to use these new planning powers introduced by the government. Wales now has three classes of use following changes to the welsh planning framework, these are namely: main home, second home and short let accommodation. Each council can now decide if a change of use requires planning permission on a property to change its use from one class to another.
Call for more councils to seize unlicensed properties
Merton Council in London has seized 18 properties for a 12 month period from a rogue landlord who persistently ignored licensing regulations, and now those councillors are calling on other councils to act and do exactly the same as they are doing to send out a clear message to all rogue landlords and more importantly to protect tenants who are left vulnerable in these situations.
Coventry and Waltham Forest Councils are the only other Councils to have seized properties and Andrew Judge, Councillor in Merton says that other authorities are ‘reluctant to be innovative in their use of these powers’. He added
People in very difficult rental circumstances are often vulnerable and councils need to do their best to offer facilities to shield people from aggressive landlords – and one way is by the exercise of such powers.
Snippets
Landlord couple fined £141,000 over failings at London HMO
John Lewis submits £80m plan to turn Reading depot into rental flats
New app revealed that lets tenants and buyers to rate properties
Council slammed after ‘quietly’ rolling out more landlord licensing
Renters’ campaigners push for ‘under-fire’ landlord MP to resign
Grenfell Tower fire: What happens next?
See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law
Newsround will be back again next week