Landlord Law Newsround brings you all the latest housing news and a bit more, so let’s see what the team has spotted this week.
New guidance on evictions issued by government
The government has issued another set of guidance for landlords for the correct process to follow on court eviction of their tenants under the Renters’ Rights Act.
Under this new Act landlords will need to use the Possession Claim Online Service (PCOL) to evict where rent is unpaid and a Section 8 for any other eviction. Landlords have to give the correct period notice for each ground. There is also guidance for the courts and tenants.
Landlords, be warned that not following the new process will get your claim dismissed, and courts could potentially order you to pay your tenants’ court costs too.
This only reinforces that landlords need to be on the ball and have all their paperwork with strong evidence in order, there will be no room errors, and the burden of proof will be on the landlord. Our advice is to use specialist solicitors, particularly if recovering possession is important for you.
You can read the new government guidance here.
Landlords need to prepare for new recycling reforms
The government’s new ‘Simpler Recycling‘ reforms come into force from March 2026, only 3 months away. Landlords should start planning now for these changes, which will mean that each authority will need to consistently give core waste recycling services of general waste, food waste, paper and cardboard and other dry recyclables.
HMO’s could be the worst affected as their strict licensing rules mean that landlords must provide the correct bins, in sufficient storage locations and ensure that tenants know exactly what to recycle and into which bin.
This could mean that landlords may be forced down the route of a private collecting waste company as the new rules could put them above the normal household collection limits via the councils current waste collection services.
Advice being given is :-
- Work with your agent or tenants now ahead of the regulations
- Look into current waste capacities and estimate what will increase
- Ensure that the collection frequency will be sufficient for your property
- Ensure you have the correct recycling bins for all new waste streams
Rogue landlord caught and fined
A rogue landlord has been fined £14,000 for renting out four flats with serious health and safety hazards, damp & mould, no heating no smoke detectors and not even a front door!
The landlord ignored a schedule of works followed by an improvement notice from Sefton Council and he still did not rectify any works which left the council serving a prohibition order on him.
Failure to do any improvements lead the courts fining him £14,000 plus legal costs for breaching both the improvement notice and the prohibition notice.
The council said they will ‘follow up on complaints and take action were improvements are not made’.
Selective License fee reduced due to lobbying by landlords
We end this week on some good and constructive news, Great Yarmouth Council has listened to its landlords (the Eastern Landlords Assoc) on their proposed selective licensing scheme.
It has agreed to reduce its license fee from £784 to £694, carry out inspections every four years rather than two years, and will consider incremental payments for landlords with more than ten properties recognising the financial pressures that larger portfolio landlords are under.
The scheme covers around 5,000 homes but will still bring in £3.45 million in revenue to the borough.
You can read more here.
And as we are on the topic of licensing, Propertymark given out some good advice this week and has advised landlords to keep abreast of their councils licensing rules and schemes. They offer some very good advice here.
Snippets
UN experts raise concerns over homes rented out by English social landlord
Fraudsters sentenced after illegally sub-letting property
Should tenants use rent payments for better credit scores?
Weak illegal eviction laws allowing ‘criminality’ says leading expert
See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law
Newsround will be back again next week
To what extent does the government guidance about evictions, particularly the making of applications for possession orders, apply to leases which are excluded from being Assured Tenancies by virtue of the amendments to Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Housing Act 1988 made by s.31(1) of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025?
I ask because we acted some months ago to ensure that all our properties qualified for exclusion prior to Royal Assent because they are leases for 10 years and in one case 20 years completed before 27 October 2025. I know others have also taken this important step and I am now trying to prepare notes about the procedure for applying for possession if we need to do this.
Thanks
I am afraid that, apart from the Blog Clinic posts, we don’t provide advice here (see our comments policy linked above) but if you need advice, you can book a call with one of our telephone advice panel solicitors here: https://landlordlaw.co.uk/openaccess_content/the-landlord-law-telephone-advice-service/