Welcome to Landlord Law’s weekly Newsround bringing you all the latest housing news.
Rent tribunal system will not cope
Once the Renters Rights Bill becomes law there is concern that the English tribunal system will not cope with the number of fair market rent appeals.
The number of open cases in March this year was more than 8000 giving a 144% rise since 2019.
Fear that once the Renters Rights Bill is in place, this will add more pressure as tenants will be able to challenge a rent rise once served with a Section 13 notice through the tribunal system. Each claim takes time with property visits alone increasing costs to the proceedings.
Steve Richmond of Reapit a Proptech company said
The Renters’ Rights Bill brings significant changes but adds more pressure to an already strained system. We’re also concerned the government hasn’t fully considered the added costs to courts and tribunals, as no impact assessment has been published.
He added
We need the government to address the court and tribunal backlog because lengthy delays will burden both landlords and tenants with months of uncertainty.
The government has stated that they will not wait until the courts improve before they reform the private rented sector.
A London council clamps down on unlicensed HMO’s
Kensington and Chelsea Council have just fined an HMO landlord £5000 for not having the correct HMO license. They say that this is just the start of their crackdown and investigative work since bringing in an additional licensing scheme last June.
This fine was the first one that they have issued since the scheme came into force, but they say that they have issued a further three penalties to landlords and are investigating further properties that are non-compliant.
They have issued a total of 555 licences since the scheme began but 216 properties have had to do improvement works as part of the condition of the license. Properties are still being located that have not yet been licensed, this is part of their ‘targeted action‘.
HMO landlords must make sure what schemes are in place within the boroughs of their properties. Failure to license is no excuse! Councils are constantly introducing new schemes and consultations.
Here at Landlord Law we have our own Local Authority Directory that lists each borough along with their licensing requirements.
Inventories favour tenants
A new survey out claims that in 90% of cases, landlords are having to pay for property damage that has been caused by their tenant. This is happening where an initial inventory is carried out, but not at the end of tenancy. This highlights the need for landlords to carry out detailed inventories at both ends of the tenancy.
Only 19% of tenants say they have had an issue come up that was not recorded on the initial inventory. Without an end of tenancy inspection, landlords have little or no comeback to the tenant. 56% of tenancies do not have an end of tenancy inventory check.
Inventory Base who carried out the survey, says
A good inventory practice is central to the successful management. It’s a landlord’s strongest defence against damage and poor tenant behaviour.
We have lots of information on inventories for our members on our Landlord Law website here.
Landlords keen to work on EPC ratings
29% of landlords say the targets set by the government for EPC rating of a ‘C’ by 2030 is only achievable with help from the government. 16% of landlords said they would struggle to afford the costs, while 25% said they will sell their properties that require upgrading.
The promising news is that some landlords, 22%, have already started the work to upgrade their properties, but these are mainly larger portfolio landlords. 54% of landlords have made some sort of energy efficiency upgrade work.
However, the message is very clear that landlords will need financial support from the government in order to achieve their ratings by 2030, 12% of the private rented sector is currently and EPC ‘E’ to ‘G’.
Emma Cox from Real Estate at Shawbrook said
Having a quality, energy-efficient, professional private rented sector is critical, particularly at a time when home-ownership and access to affordable housing remains challenging. But this must be achieved with the support from government and industry.
Snippets
Most former rental properties not bought by first time buyers
Chancellor urged to consider stamp duty reforms amid EPC costs for landlords
Landlord bashing council slammed over its own property failings
Pet friendly homes, not rent rises are tenants biggest concern
See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law
Newsround will be back again next week