Welcome to our last Newsround for May, where this week we have seen quite a varied amount of housing news, so let’s see what has caught our eye this week.
Councils step up their powers of enforcement
Brent council officers were directly targeting their streets last weekend, knocking on doors trying to catch out unlicensed landlords and checking to see that properties were not breaching any health and safety hazards and taking immediate action where needed.
All property in Brent that is rented out requires a license apart from one area. They were patrolling the areas on foot using targeted intelligence where they suspected there were landlords operating without a license. They found 15 people in one seven bedroom property following a tip off and a visit.
A councillor spokes person said
Responsible landlords play a vital role in providing quality homes and helping to ease the housing crisis – we won’t let rogue landlords ruin the reputation of those doing the right thing.
They emphasise that if landlords are breaking the law they will ‘face prosecution and hefty fines’.
More due diligence needed when vetting tenants
A Welsh judge this week has expressed his concern over the lack of ‘due diligence’ taken by some landlords when vetting new tenants after he jailed a man found working at a cannabis farm in a privately rented property.
The judge said that politicians should enforce more rules around landlords vetting processes. Police found that this particular property had specially made re-enforced doors and the whole privately rented property was being used as a cannabis farm with 398 cannabis plants growing to the value of £171,000.
The judge was surprised that police were not putting ‘more effort’ into finding out who were running these illegal farms and why they were not ‘vigorously pursuing’ the landlords of the properties concerned.
21% of landlords unaware of EICR regulations
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the compulsory EICR certificates (electrical Installation Condition Report) for the private rented sector, a new report out by Direct Line business insurance claims that one in five landlords are oblivious to the implications of not having a valid EICR certificate, which can result in them having anything up to £30,000 of fines.
Whilst one in twelve landlords do not even hold a valid EICR certificate or if they do, know if it is valid.
They further identified that shockingly only 10% of landlords knew if they had all the relevant and legal documentation in order to evict a tenant. Only two thirds of landlords are aware of the gas safety legal requirements and even less knew about the EPC laws for rented properties.
The representative for Direct Line business insurance said that not staying on top of all the legal paperwork can not only result in heavy fines but can also invalidate their insurance.
Bailiffs calling for reform
Bailiffs are campaigning for reform with a new survey that they have launched via their High Court Enforcement Officers Association. They are lobbying the government for a change in the law to make things quicker in transferring possession claims to the High Court where once there, enforcement is more often than not executed quicker.
The association is asking for all landlords and agents to complete the survey to detail the challenges that they have experienced so that they can produce this information to the government to highlight the severity of the problems faced by landlords and how this can unfairly cause delays for landlords. They are being backed by NRLA and Propertymark.
You can participate in the survey here.
Snippets
Council claims selective licensing scheme will support landlords
Annual drop in number of HMO licenses granted by councils
Social housing landlords still failing on emergency repairs ahead of Awaab’s Law
Welsh landlords face new rent data reporting rules
See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law
Newsround will be back again next week