Landlord Law Newsround #414

Welcome to another Landlord Law Newsround, let’s see what has been in the news this week.

Not all landlord house improvements pay off – claim

A new survey carried out has found that 51% of landlords who have carried upgrade work to their rental properties have regretted it, with 32% not getting the result in the rental income that they had wanted to achieve.  30% said that their renovation works cost too much.

The main reason improvement works are carried out is to attract new tenants, boost the property value (25%) and reduce voids (27%).

Average spend per property is around £43,000, depending on portfolio size. The Mortgage Works who carried out the survey, found that kitchen and bathroom improvements were the most popular (20%), with green improvements as low as 18%. 68% of landlords carried out works to convert their property to an HMO.

This runs alongside another article this week where property management company, Aduivo, advise that landlords need to spend around 23.6% which is approximately nearly a quarter of their rental income, on maintenance alone.

Council’s low rogue HMO prosecution rate to get funding

An article this week states that two-thirds of councils have never prosecuted a landlord in the last three years, despite getting over 300,000 complaints from tenants living in unfit homes.

Between 2022 and 2024, just under half of local authorities did not fine a landlord or issue any civil penalty notices to rectify serious breaches, resulting in less than 2% of tenants’ complaints getting resolved.

Nye Jones of Generation Rent said this is mainly down to a lack of resources for councils to act on enforcement. Once the Renters’ Right Act comes into force next May, councils will legally have to clamp down on illegal landlords.

Henry Dawson, who used to be an enforcement officer, said that staff numbers have dropped by more than a third and ‘If they were to take on prosecution or to handle an appeal of a formal legal notice, then that could effectively remove them from their day-to-day work for months’.

The government announced last week an £18 million funding to help councils prepare for better enforcement.  Some say this is still not enough, it ‘will help but not transform’ according to Henty Dawson who added

The funding must be sustained and predictable and must allow councils to attract and train new staff.

You can read the full article here.

Shocking number of landlords unprepared for RRA

More than half of landlords, 57%, are ill prepared for the Renters’ Rights Act, according to a survey carried out by Dwelly of 930 landlords. Furthermore, 7% are not prepared at al,l and just 15% admit that they are fully prepared.

The highest concerns were the abolition of section 21, handling requests for keeping pets, the new national landlord register and periodic tenancies. Many are relying on their agents to advise and prepare them, as 66% of landlords say that any official guidance so far has not been very well documented or clear.

On a positive note, 71% of landlords welcome a staggered rollout, giving them time to manage compliance.

Government issues guidance on pet requests

The government has now issued its (somewhat brief) guidance on what grounds a landlord can refuse a pet and what grounds it cannot.  Each request must be taken on a case by case basis and must be given in writing. A landlord will then have 28 days to respond in writing, plus a further seven days if more information regarding the pet is requested. Failure to do so will mean the tenant can apply to the courts.

Any pet refusal must be clearly explained in writing and the tenant has the right to challenge it ultimately by legal proceedings against the landlord.

Once a pet is agreed, the landlord cannot go back on that decision further down the line, but if the tenant wants a second pet they will need to request permission in writing again.

You can read the government’s full guidelines here.  Our earlier article on pets is here.

Snippets

Young landlords relying on TikTok to learn the ropes
Mayor vows to use new powers for landlord crackdown on his patch
New national tourist tax plan will raise short stay prices 
Councils demand over £1,000 from landlords for HMO license
The Guardian view on rogue landlords: past failures do not augur well for the new era of renters’ rights

See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law

Newsround will be back again next week