Landlord licensing looms as tenants are asked ‘how it should it work?’
New DLUHC consultation wants to know what information tenants would like to see an English licensing system deliver for tenants when sizing up a landlord or their property.
A government survey to learn more about tenants’ experiences in the PRS confirms that a landlord register in England is clearly high on the government’s agenda.
The Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities is quizzing previous and current renters as it works to fine-tune the Renters Reform Bill white paper and wants to explore the merits of a national register.
The survey asks whether renters would be interested in accessing information about their landlord (such as name and contact details) along with information about whether the landlord has any relevant convictions for housing offences, details about the safety standard of the property (including gas safety) and the property’s energy efficiency.
PRS standards
Responses will help it to understand the difficulties faced when renting, letting or enforcing property standards in the PRS.
Proposals being considered in the white paper include abolishing Section 21, improving Section 8, and introducing lifetime deposits. It aims to drive improvements by ensuring all tenants have a right to redress and ensuring well-targeted, effective enforcement that drives out criminal landlords. The government promises that these will be the largest changes to renting in 30 years.
The white paper was delayed from the autumn until 2022 after it said the extension would, “not only allow us to benefit from continued work with the sector but will also allow us to carefully consider the findings of the National Audit Office’s review of regulation of the sector which is due to report in the coming months”.
The tenant consultation runs until 17th November.
Sadly, we only hear about the awful personal experiences, and Property Redress Schemes are designed for such occasions; Landlords and Agents have to be a member of said scheme as par for the course. Obviously the complainant has been wronged, although sometimes a well written letter to the appropriate department would have a lot more sway.
If the property is managed by and Agent, then it is their responsibility to have included in an agreement with the Landlord a procedure for maintaining the property, outlining for example set monetary amounts within which the Agent can proceed with repairs, thereafter forwarding receipt of work carried out to the Landlord and deducting those costs. An Agent most certainly wouldn’t take a property onto their register without the legally required gas safe and energy rating certificates.
Local authorities should be informed if the property is a threat to Tenant’s health to work with the Environment Agency to ensure the property is habitable.
In the example highlighted, naming and shaming Landlords would certainly make them think twice, and access to your Landlord’s track record would be useful prior to signing any Agreement.
I can only extol the virtues of renting from a managed property where you would have access to the Letting Agent pretty much 24/7 in cases of emergencies, for example burst water pipes/electrical faults.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! I hope things get resolved sooner rather than later.
This would benefit all tenants and protect us from rogue landlords and rogue letting agent like Medlock estates failsworth manchester, as they don’t do repairs when reported and even when they have been served notice by environmental health, also I don’t have a,energy efficiency certificate and don’t have a gas safety certificate they are also not in a redress scheme, its been a nightmare tenancy for the last 10 years and when you complain, they threaten to evict you or pur your rent up this is landlords revenge, they are illegally renting properties without proper safety certificates and putting the lives of us and other tenants at risk, they should have there license revoked and find heavily, it seems they are above the law. These re landlords from Hell, I’ve payed around £90.000 in rent and never missed the landlord only payed £49.000 for the property, I could have bought it twice with all the rent I’ve payed its a nightmare, faulty boiler, ga fire doesn’t work windows have failed, cold and damp/ mould faulty electrics over looked by electrician, it’s making our lives miserable and we should be refunded our rents for disrepair, we have to beg for repairs then they are ignored, they break there own tenancy agreement terms and conditions when it suits them Oldham council environmental health are useless for not making sure landlords do repairs stating in the notice served by them , this is giving rogue landlords and letting agents a license to commit crime against tenants.