Landlord Law Newsround comes with another week full of housing news. Read on to find out more.
New rules to crackdown on rogue landlords & tenants
As of this week the government has introduced new rules for all letting agents to carry out sanction checks on all prospective landlords and on all tenants before a tenancy is entered into. Fines are high of up to £1m even if it is by a making a mistake.
From now on letting agents are required to check both landlords and tenants against the UK’s financial sanctions list, if they are on the list then their assets must be frozen.
Nishma Parekh director of referencing of Goodlord says
New rules around sanctions checks represent a major shift for the industry and it would be very easy for letting agents to unwittingly fall foul of them. Every single landlord and tenant, no matter the rental value, must now go through sanctions checks.
Agents have been warned to be very organised as fines are high. Self-managing landlords should also consider doing the checks.
Financial penalties can now wipe out landlords
Landlords can no longer afford to be complacent and miss renewal payments on licenses or even risk being non-compliant as councils are now more stringent and automated than ever, racking up their enforcement and imposing huge fines that can now threaten and ruin any landlord’s financial position.
Councils no longer give cautions for forgetting to renew a licence, a missed deadline can cost you £105,000 that can rise to £210,000 if you are a limited company, according to Phil Turtle, a property compliance specialist.
HMO landlords get even heavier fines fines can be as high as £17,000 for violating an HMO Management regulation and £12,500 for an electrical safety breach.
Phil Turtle form Landlord Licensing and Defence says
The laws have been in place for years, and enforcement is only getting sharper. Don’t let a forgotten date cost you your livelihood.
Wise words especially in view of the Renters Rights Bill which will substantially increase tenants rights when bringing applications for a Rent Repayment Order.
‘Wear & tear’ rules need revamping for remote working
Inventory Base claims that the Housing Act 1998 should redefine ‘normal use’ to take into account current day living especially where remote working now accounts for 41% of the UK workforce. Courts should also be more flexible in ‘reasonable use’. They say that the ‘wear and tear’ rules are now unfair on both tenants and landlords.
Tenants are getting unfairly penalised in their deposit deductions for ‘damage’ and landlords are facing a reduced ‘life expectancy’ of items such are carpets, sofa’s and other fittings due to more use caused by home working. Purchasing costs for replacing items have also spiralled.
Sian Hemming-Metcalfe of Inventory Base says rental regulations ‘need to catch up with reality’ as it is causing ‘confusion, disputes and unnecessary friction between landlord, tenant, property managers and inventory clerks who manage the dispute process.
Poorest tenants pay more of their income on rent – Fact
The official for National Statistics (ONS) has stated that it is the poorest tenants in the private rented sector that are now spending 63% of their income on rent. This is quite shocking compared to the average of what tenants pay is 34% of their income. They have now classed this as a ‘housing crisis’.
In their report they say that there is a ‘growing disparity across households in England, particularly in London and the South East where rents are highest’. Furthermore, the cost of living is ‘worsening the housing crisis conditions and disproportionately affecting certain households and groups of tenants more than others’.
Snippets
Government to train thousands of retrofit workers but EPC C targets may be ‘impossible’
Landlords pay the price for cramming students into unsafe HMO
Making Tax Digital – low awareness with one year to go
Generation Rent wants rent rebates for complaints about landlords
Welsh government drops controversial no-fault eviction compensation plan
See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law
Newsround will be back again next week