EXCLUSIVE: Landlords cannot ask tenants to take Covid tests prior to visits

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Landlords can’t ask tenants to take a Covid test before going into a property, says Housing Minister Christopher Pincher.

The Minister was responding to a written question from Labour deputy chief whip Alan Campbell (pictured) who wanted more detail on the subject.

The MP for Tynemouth tells LandlordZONE: “We tabled the question because a constituent who is a landlord got in touch. I didn’t think the guidance was clear so we thought we would get clarification.”

The government’s guidance is clear that landlords should be aware that some tenants, “may still want to exercise caution and should respect this when engaging with their tenants”, however, this evidently doesn’t apply to those more cautious landlords needing to make inspections or carry out work.

Campbell’s landlord constituent wanted to know whether he could require his tenants to have a Covid test before undertaking safety checks in a property.

The Minister replied: “Landlords can take steps to carry out repairs and safety inspections, including routine and essential inspections and repairs, as well as any planned internal works to the property under the national lockdown which is in force in England.

“But only provided these are undertaken in line with guidance for people working in other people’s homes and the relevant coronavirus (COVID-19) legislation.

“This legislation does not allow landlords to require tenants to have a test for COVID-19.”

Although the guidance says current restrictions may mean it’s harder to carry out routine or essential repairs and maintenance, the government insists that landlords should make every effort to meet their responsibilities.

But it adds they shouldn’t be unfairly penalised where COVID-19 restrictions might have prevented them from meeting some routine obligations.

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Citizens Advice reports 40% rise in demand for help from private tenants

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Citizens Advice helped one client every minute with problems relating to rented properties during the first two months of this year.

The charity saw a 40% rise in those seeking one-to-one advice on rental issues compared with the same period in 2020, helping 16,530 people during office hours.

Issues included 29% who had repairs or maintenance problems, 9% who were worried about possession action not related to rent arrears, 5% who reported harassment by their landlord and 4% who wanted help with a possible illegal eviction.

Polling by Citizens Advice through its national Tenants’ Voice panel shows one-third of private renters have been worried by the threat of eviction, despite the ban, in the last three months.

Disrepair

The panel – made up of 700 private renters from across England – also found two-thirds of those surveyed had faced problems with maintenance or disrepair in that time. 

Figures from the charity’s website show 69,000 people viewed its advice pages dealing with private tenancies during January and February.

Alistair Cromwell (pictured), acting chief executive, says the eviction ban has simply papered over the cracks.

He adds: “Our research paints a disturbing picture of a private rental market in which tenants pay high rents on badly maintained properties, while living in constant fear that any complaint could result in summary eviction.”

Citizens Advice says the forthcoming Renters’ Reform Bill is an opportunity to lay the foundations of a more equitable private rented sector. The charity wants an end to Section 21 evictions, indefinite tenancies used as standard and a new national housing body and register to set consistent standards, give tenants greater protection, and help responsible landlords.  

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Anyone used Ground 1 S8 successfully?

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As I understand it you can gain mandatory possession with Ground 2 S8 if… the landlord wishes to move into the property to use it as their main home, and they were the owner of the property prior to the tenant moving in.

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Purchase of property in Shildon?

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Hi All, I’m in a discussion with a property consultant to purchase a property in Shildon, County Durham (Thomas Street). It is a terraced house freehold.

I’m looking for some review on the area since I’m looking into this for investment purposes only.

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Landlords call for interest-free hardship loans to tenants with rent arrears

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The NRLA has called on Ministers to tackle the UK’s mounting rent arrears debt mountain after Boris Johnson last night revealed his government’s plan to ease Covid restrictions.

These are due to be relaxed in three tranches – 29^th March, 12^th April, 17^th May and 29^th June – but the NRLA says it is worried that there is no plan to shield tenants and landlords from what happens when the estimated 840,000 tenants in rent arrears are no longer protected by the current eviction restrictions.

There is also a huge backlog of evictions cases waiting to ether go through the courts, or waitin for the ban on bailiff evictions to be lifted.

Unlike Scotland and Wales, there is no specific Covid finance package to support the private rental market.

Increasing arrears

Research by the NRLA reveals that although most landlords have been working with struggling tenants to help keep them in their homes as far as possible, 60 per cent have lost rental income as a result of the pandemic. Of these, 39 per cent said the losses were continuing to increase.

The organisations is calling for Government guaranteed, interest free hardship loans to be made available for tenants now in arrears but who do not qualify for benefit support. Grants should be made available for those in receipt of benefits.

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, (main pic) says: “While many landlords and tenants have worked well in responding to the challenges posed by the pandemic, we are now at a crunch point. As the country follows the roadmap out of lockdown, so too emergency measures in the rental market will need to be eased.

“Ministers need to ensure the tenants have the financial means to pay off rent debts built as a result of the pandemic. Without this they will have to accept the inevitable consequence of rising homelessness and damaged credit scores.”

Read the full roadmap document.

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One year on from the first ban on the repossession of rented homes

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One year on from the first ban on the repossession of rented homes, new analysis shows that more tenants are likely to lose their homes in the long term as a result.

Research for the National Residential Landlords Association has shown that there are an estimated 840,000 private tenants who have built rent arrears since lockdown measures began.

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