Clive Betts
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Latest property news
Letting agents must ‘stop encouraging longer tenancies’
Read how a leading MP and Select Committee chair has called for lettings agents to stop encouraging longer tenancies within the PRS.
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Latest property news
Fit for human habitation legislation passes second hurdle in Parliament
A bill requiring landlords and agents to ensure rental properties are fit for human habitation and enabling tenants to chase them for compensation when they don’t maintain them took its second step through the House of Commons on Friday. The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill passed its second reading in Parliament during an hour-and-a-half long debate lead by the bill’s sponsor Karen Buck, MP for Westminster North (pictured, above). Her bill, for the first time, frames what ‘fit for human habitation’ means and outlines the new regulations that agents will have to ensure properties stick to. Landlords and agents already have to ensure properties are not kept in a state of ‘disrepair’ but now ‘unfit’ will cover issues such as fire safety, inadequate heating, poor ventilation, condensation and mould. At the moment landlords and agents are only obliged to repair the structure of a property when it’s broken or damaged, but when the bill becomes law most likely later this year, they will have wider responsibilities for the condition of the property. Fit for human habitation The debate included contributions from Clive Betts MP (pictured, right), who also chairs the Ministry of Housing, Communities…
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Tenant fees ban WILL drive up rents and lower property standards, MPs are told
MPs put the new housing minister Sajid Javid’s tenant fees ban legislation under scrutiny last night, and it was proven to be lacking on several fronts. Landlords are likely to increase their rents across the tenancy to pay the extra costs of running a tenancy, something the new law can’t stop, and that there is a substantial risk local councils will impose unjustifiably high fines on agents and landlords to finance enforcement, in the absence of government support, it was claimed. The other key criticism made during the session was that the draft bill is likely to be self-defeating – lower fees will mean letting agents are less incentivised to help landlords run their properties professionally. These views were all the more surprising given they came from experts from the policy end of the sector, not agents. The two-hour long session was held by the parliamentary committee that oversees Sajid’s department, the Select Committee that oversees the newly renamed Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Tenant fees ban Headed up by MP Clive Betts plus 11 other MPs, it quizzed three experts in the field about how effective the bill will be. These were Shelter’s Head of Policy Kate…
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Latest property news
MPs lead inquiry into rogue landlords and selective licensing
An inquiry is to be held in parliament into how well local authorities are policing rogue landlords and how effective the much-criticised selective licensing schemes have been in curtailing bad practices. Announced by the Communities and Local Government select committee, the inquiry will examine several key issues within the private rented sector including whether councils should do more to provide affordable private rented accommodation, whether they have enough powers to deal with rogue landlords and what’s preventing proper policing of the privately rented homes sector. The Committee will also look at how effective the complaints system is for tenants. The inquiry’s terms of reference are very similar to a key report by the Adam Smith Institute published three years ago, which found that 52% of councils activity promoted the private rented sector through their local plans, but only 2% said it was their top housing priority. Bad landlords “With a big rise in the number of people renting over the last decade, there are real concerns about the ability of local authorities to protect tenants by tackling bad landlords and practices,” says the committee’s Chair Clive Betts MP. “Our inquiry will examine how local authorities can carry out enforcement work…
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