Welcome to our first Newsround for October, let’s see what has been happening this week in the news.
New right to rent rules came into force on 1 October.
Guidance on these was published in the Landlord Law News Blog.
Greater regulation impacting self-managing landlords
There is quite a bit in the news this week regarding whether self-managing rental properties is the right approach for all landlords, taking into account the additional rental reforms, new compliance requirements, and fines that the Renters’ Right Act has introduced.
74% of self-managing landlords say managing their properties is harder now than three years ago. 52% of landlords claim that maintenance and repairs are still the most time-consuming, whilst dealing with compliance is the most stressful. This is according to a survey carried out by Property management company Rushbrook.
Whilst this survey claims that many self-managing landlords are considering if this is still the ‘right approach’, landlords are being warned that by just ‘appointing a letting agent’ does not automatically assume that all responsibility for compliance goes with it. Landlords should always check that they are compliant even if a letting agent is managing your property, and should choose an agent very carefully.
Paul Endacott of 1st Avenue said
The biggest risk facing landlords today isn’t necessarily a bad tenant. It may be assuming someone else is managing compliance when, legally, the responsibility still comes back to the landlord.
Landlords looking for guidance with compliance should check out the Landlord Law service.
Sharp rise in County Court Judgements
There has been an 11.6% rise in consumer county court judgements within the last year, according to Registry Trust, which processes this data. They claim that 6% of the population now has at least one CCJ or other adverse rating against their name. Which means the likelihood of a landlord coming across a prospective tenant with one is becoming more likely.
One in ten landlords are now taking a lot more care with tenant references and employment status.
Allison Thompson, Chief Lettings Officer of Leaders, says that landlords are justified in taking referencing ‘seriously’ and ‘most tenants do pass the referencing process’.
Where landlords are now unable to take rent in advance, referencing is becoming one of the most important tools a landlord has.
Voids between tenancies increase
There is now an average void time of more than three weeks between tenancies with this time span increasing year on year. This is an average time of 23.2 days in 2026 compared to 17.5 days in 2023.
This obviously incurs a cost to the landlord where the financial impact can be as high as £1357 in London and £859 in the West Midlands. And whilst voids are unavoidable and landlords with good management can minimise voids by planning ahead and identifying what works and maintenance needs doing before the previous tenancy ends and arranging to the works to start immediately after the tenant moves out. Actively managing the check-out process can also help reduce void periods.
You can read more here.
However, landlords should be careful about very short voids between lets as this will not allow sufficient time to check the property properly before reletting. Remember that landlords will be liable to new tenants for damage or injury caused by any unauthorised alterations carried out by previous tenants. Or, for example, the introduction of vermin such as bed bugs into the property. The period between lets is also the best time to carry out improvement and upgrade works.
Whopping £100,000 fines for license breaches
A letting agent and managing agent have jointly been fined over £100,000 for breaching many of their license conditions. They had 20 tenants living in an overcrowded cockroach infested house with fire safety hazards, blocked escape routes and no working oven to name but a few. These all amounted to category 1 hazards.
The managing agent, Vispap Sarkari was found to be a repeat offender and now faces a banning order. The agent was fined £50,000 in addition to victim surcharges and prosecution costs of over £5,000. The acting agent Meet Valand was fined £40,000 and £3,183 victim surcharges.
A council spokesperson said that this should be a warning to other landlords or agents that ‘ignore their responsibilities’ and that property licensing is ‘a key tool in helping councils to raise standards and tackle rogue landlords’.
Snippets
Energy Efficiency – give demands to help landlords
Landlords warned over pop-up brothels and tenant checks
Tenant demand rises as supply falls
Tribunal cancels £11K penalty against landlord director
Newsround will be back again next week. In the meantime, check out our Daily Tips service.
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