Welcome to another Landlord Law Newsround where we bring you the latest housing news.
Landlords have you got the correct insurance?
There was an interesting article this week warning landlords to keep on track of their landlord insurance policies.
Quotezone.co.uk have found that landlord insurance is now more important than ever and having the wrong type of cover could cost you dearly, or even void your cover. And, do not ignore your tenants, as they can play a very important role in unwittingly undermining your cover if you are not kept abreast with any damages to your property or long periods of unoccupancy.
This also highlights the need to carry out regular inspections so that you have photos or documented evidence to provide to your insurer should you ever need it.
Chief Exec of Quotezone, Greg Wilson says
If landlords need to make an insurance claim for an issue that was reported by a tenant, but they chose to ignore it, they’ll likely end up covering the cost themselves, as insurers could deny the claim.
That’s why landlords need to act quickly, protect their property and ensure the conditions remain safe for tenants at all times.
Here at Landlord Law, our members have a wealth of insurance information at their fingertips, some of which includes an Insurance Mini Course that de-mystifies the world of insurance for rented properties, and also links to my many blog posts on insurance, such as this one.
We also have our Property Inspection Kit to help landlords deal with those all important inspection visits.
Social landlords still falling short on damp and mould
The Housing Ombudsman is calling out social landlords on still failing tenants, especially those with children, for not dealing with damp and mould quickly and urgently enough.
Awaabs Law is set to become law for social landlords in seven months’ time, and in his report this week, the Housing Ombudsman claims that social landlords are still leaving tenants vulnerable for not diagnosing what is causing a damp and mould situation quickly enough.
It also points out that there is often no correlation between inspections and repairs. Often, inspections are missed or not carried out or they do not follow up with any repairs. Results like this have seen one family suffer for a decade.
Several social landlords have been named in the report, Bristol City Council, Westminster City Council, Cornwall Council, Greenwich Council and Together Housing Group to name but a few.
Richard Blakeway of the Housing Ombudsman said
Once more, weaknesses in knowledge and information management are shown to hamper the landlord’s response to residents, including knowing the status of repairs.
Council brings in powers to reject new HMO’s
Whilst many councils are bringing in their own additional and selective licensing schemes, Preston Council has gone a step further and is consulting on giving itself greater planning controls by instigating a new Article 4 Direction. Which will give them the power to reject new HMO applications within certain locations in their borough.
They claim that some of their areas are now so overrun with HMOs that they are detrimentally impacting residents’ quality of life. Such as anti-social behaviour and on-street parking. But the large number of HMOs is also preventing properties being available for families.
Councillor Amber Afzal said low house prices encourage landlords to buy properties and convert them to HMO’s to maximise their profits. But she feels this makes Preston more attractive to lower-income households and the vulnerable, which in turn, keeps up the demand for more HMO type properties in that area. Thus limiting the opportunities for family owner occupied accommodation.
EPC challenges ahead for landlords
New analysis out this week by Eurocell, a home improvement specialist, claims that over half the homes, 56% in England, currently sit below an EPC rating of ‘C’, with Cumbria having the least energy efficient houses with 17% being and ‘F’ or ‘G’ rating, followed by Devon and Cornwall closely behind.
Interestingly, Tower Hamlets has 34.9% of its homes being above average EPC rating and rather starkly only 0.3% of homes are an EPC ‘A’. Having a rating of EPC ‘D’ appears to be the most popular and takes up the largest national proportion, with over 9.3m houses falling into this category.
The government is currently planning on introducing a new EPC system in the second half of 2026, with all new tenancies meeting a higher energy efficiency standard by 2028, followed by all existing rental properties by 2030.
Landlord Law members can sign up our webinar here where this month, we discuss the latest government EPC proposals with Suzanne Smith.
Snippets
Supported Accommodation – Have your say?
Manchester warns landlords to ‘get licensed’ as scheme expands
Man found to have deliberately blown up his house
Landlords and agents hit by 19% jump in void costs
Landlord prosecuted after evicting tenant over WhatsApp
‘Chancellor must boost rental homes supply or risk economy’
See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law
Newsround will be back again next week
This is great roundup of key issues landlords need to stay on top of. The thing about landlord insurance: many don’t know that if you don’t take action when a tenant reports something to fix, you’ll void your coverage.
Archiving the data is crucial, and moving forward, you must inspect the property regularly. The persistent issues of damp and mould in social housing, which are worrisome and point to a lack of accountability, are just the latest examples.
HMOs are another interesting debate — they do provide needed housing, but lack of growth control can harm the community. And the EPC challenges are something all landlords should anticipate as we look ahead to tighter efficiency standards.
We will need to stay well informed, and most importantly, ahead of the curve over these changes, which will be the biggest mega shift in healthcare history to date. Great insights!