Tenants can be cause of property problems as well as landlords, Government admits

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Landlords’ long-standing criticisms of health and safety regulation – that tenants are often the cause of problems such as mould or water leaks – look set to be addressed in new government guidance.

Councils inspecting rented properties will be formally instructed to examine residents’ behaviour when deciding whether to take action against landlords over dangerous conditions, according to leaked documents seen by the Observer over the weekend.

Under the updated housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS) – part of the Decent Homes Standard – environmental health inspectors will be told to consider detailed “behavioural factors”, such as whether residents are ensuring their home is heated and ventilated, including using heating, running extraction fans and opening windows.

They will also be required to consider whether people are exposing themselves to excessively low temperatures due to ignorance, a “stoic and often embedded attitude” to cold or desire to “reduce carbon emissions”.

Landlords and local councils have complained that the HHSRS – which hasn’t been updated since 2006 – is complicated and inefficient to use. Guidance developed for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is expected to take effect by April 2023.

The DLUHC says the secretary of state has been clear that landlords must be held to account if they do not provide safe and decent homes.

Enforce standards

A spokesman tells LandlordZONE: “We are reviewing the HHSRS to ensure the tool works as well as it can – that means allowing councils to enforce standards in rented homes more effectively and efficiently. This will result in fewer hazardous conditions.”

Earlier this year, landlords were asked to share their views on the proposed new Decent Homes Standard, part of the Renters’ Reform Bill.

It aims to match standards in the social rented sector and introduces a legal duty on landlords to ensure their property is free from the most serious ‘category 1’ hazards assessed using the HHSRS; failure to do so would be a criminal offence.

Read the current guidance on HHSRA for private landlords.

View Full Article: Tenants can be cause of property problems as well as landlords, Government admits

UK house prices set to fall for the next two years

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House prices in the UK are predicted to fall for the next two years before they will increase again, the government’s official forecaster says.

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), it says that between now and autumn 2024

View Full Article: UK house prices set to fall for the next two years

Rogue landlord fined just £300 for ignoring safety warnings at flat

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A landlord who illegally rented out an unsafe room to a family with a baby has been fined just £300 despite ignoring a legal request to fix an unsafe property.

Yousaf Younas, of Cartier Close, Warrington, failed to comply with a Prohibition Order served after inspectors visited his property at 58 Fitzherbert Street (pictured).

It banned the use of a ground-floor bedroom next to the kitchen due to serious fire safety concerns, and told him that works needed to be carried out before it could be occupied again.

However, the bedroom was later found to be in use by a young family while Younas had failed to carry out any works to reduce the fire risk. He pleaded guilty at Warrington Magistrates’ Court and was also ordered to pay £100 costs and a £34 victim surcharge.

Cabinet member for environment, housing and public protection, councillor Hitesh Patel (pictured), says: “The successful prosecution serves as a warning to other landlords that we will not hesitate to prosecute landlords who fail to comply with legal notices and don’t take the health and safety of their tenants seriously.”

Facebook caution

Meanwhile, in Coventry, a landlord has been issued with a formal caution after he posted details of his tenant’s rent arrears on Facebook and then shared it with her friends and family in a bid to humiliate her. The landlord also shared her employment details and address, although he subsequently deleted the post.

The tenant complained to the council’s landlord and tenant liaison officer who issued the caution which can prevent a landlord from obtaining licences, including the ability to manage an HMO. She could also choose to bring a civil action.

Councillor David Welsh, cabinet member for housing and communities, says: “This sends out a clear message to landlords that Coventry City Council will do all it can to protect its residents from unlawful eviction and harassment.”

View Full Article: Rogue landlord fined just £300 for ignoring safety warnings at flat

Police damage to flat doors?

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Hello, Police smashed their way into a block of 3 flats I own to interview some suspects. There was no need to use a battering ram to gain entry when there were call buttons and all three flats were occupied.

View Full Article: Police damage to flat doors?

Propertymark says the pressure on rents is easing

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Propertymark, the body for property agents, says that the average number of new prospective tenants registered with each member branch in October fell by 42% on the month before.

This drop in demand will, they say, reduce pressure on rents

View Full Article: Propertymark says the pressure on rents is easing

Conforming with regulations?

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Hello, I have 2 questions about the practical approach to meeting regulations.

I have just requested an electrical safety check which the property has failed with a number of C2 faults. I have asked for an estimate for rectifying the faults which the electrician is preparing

View Full Article: Conforming with regulations?

Majority of property investors looking to invest next year

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More than 50% of property investors are looking to further expand their portfolio in 2023 – despite the uncertainty of the UK’s economic outlook, research reveals.

The findings from bridging finance broker Finbri of more than 1,000 property investors found that 50.45% are planning to invest

View Full Article: Majority of property investors looking to invest next year

Hunt’s CGT changes will cost average landlord up to £2,600 more per sale

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Estate agency Hamptons has warned that the Chancellor’s changes to the capital gains tax system announced in his Autumn statement last week will cost landlords up to £2,600 more each time they sell a property.

CGT bills depend on the price of the property and the tax status of the landlord involved, but all will be hit by JeremyHunt’s decision to cut the annual exempt amount for capital gains tax from £12,300 to £6,000 next year, and then halve it again to just £3,000 from April 2024.

This means landlords who report their tax via their personal tax return each year (rather than limited company structures) will pay 18% on any capital gain over these new lower threshold if they are basic rate tax payers, and 28% for those who are ‘higher rate’.

Hamptons has based its calculation on data that reveals the average ‘profit’ made by landlords on BTL home sales the year has been £98,050.

Thresholds

This means that, once the new thresholds are introduced, the CGT paid by a lower rate tax payer will increase by £1,1770 and for a higher rate one, £2,610… and then increase again in 2024.

“The new changes to capital gains tax, will add further pressure to landlords and we are likely to see more rental properties put up for sale,” says Kevin Roberts, Managing Director, Legal & General Mortgage Services.

“A greater supply of housing for buyers will definitely be welcomed by some, but this could prove a painful development for renters.

“The rental market is already suffering from a lack of stock and rising rents.”

Read more: Complete guide to landlords' tax for 2022/23.

View Full Article: Hunt’s CGT changes will cost average landlord up to £2,600 more per sale

Comment: the condensation and mould crisis hits the headlines again

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The tragedy of the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in a Rochdale social housing flat rests heavily on the minds of landlords across the country: could this happen in one of my own properties they might well ask?

The answer is probably, yes it easily could. In a winter with rising energy costs the likelihood of a condensation problem leading to black mould appearing in rental properties, a recognised and serious heath hazard, is considerably enhanced.

Landlords are worried

Naturally landlords across the country are worried. They are concerned about their own tenants and the way the media circus has alighted on this Rochdale housing association case, an organisation tasked with caring for its tenants embroiled in a major scandal, its embattled boss now no longer employed.

Gareth Swarbrick has been removed from his post as chief executive of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. His sacking comes just four days after an inquest into the death of two-year-old Awaab who died from a respiratory condition said to be caused by exposure to mould growth in his parents’ flat.

I’ve written at length about condensation and mould in rental properties in the past as readers of these pages will know, and a quick site search will attest. Regrettably it is a common problem and more so in rentals, but thankfully few cases lead to a tragedy so serious as this, though a lot of hidden health issues must lie just beneath the surface – the NHS has recognised the long-term health issues stemming from poor housing conditions.

My interest in the subject stems from my own experience as a landlord, experience with this very issue and the learning curve I went through myself – this is a complex problem which is not readily understood, certainly by the media, the legal profession and also by some “experts” who should know better.

The are two primary causes of condensation in a property: the prevailing housing conditions and the way that the occupants are living, or more often a combination of these two factors.

Easy to point the finger, not so easy to get it right

Landlords have a responsibility under current legislation, the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and these criteria are likely to get far more stringer under the Decent Housing Standard due to be introduced for rentals, for the first time, very soon, through the Renters Reform Bill.

Landlords are obliged to provide a property that is free from damp and condensation, not just under these laws but also the Homes, (Fitness for Human Habitation Act) 2018 in England, the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and in Wales, the equivalent Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

A report from the Housing Ombudsman following its investigation into damp and mould concluded that it’s no longer acceptable to simply blame these conditions on the lifestyles of tenants living in a landlord’s property – all parties, it said, must work together to find the primary cause.

The elephants in the room

In my experience condensation and mould can occur in any property – even a new house – but is more likely to become an issue in any property that is too cold. Where the temperature is allowed to drop below a minimum of around 18 degrees C for extended periods, usually when people living there are producing lots of moisture, which is not evacuated at source. Cooking, washing and indoor drying of clothes are the main culprits here.

A property whose walls are warm, when the building fabric, in cold winter weather, is receiving a steady but not necessarily an over-hot flow of warmth, black mould almost never forms. Secondly, when steam produced by the above processes is extracted at source, and there is a minimum form of circulated fresh air, say from trick-vents, then the causes of condensation are minimised if not eliminated entirely.

Poverty is a major issue right now, one in which we are becoming increasingly familiar this winter. It sets up a vicious cycle of trying to save on energy costs, leading to a building that becomes thoroughly cold, while every gap, window and vent is sealed like a box, trapping every bit of steam and moist air inside. Even breathing produces steam. A family can easily produce up to three or four gallons of water moisture every 24 hours, just through breathing.

So these are the elephants the media choses to ignore. When we see those dramatic black mouldy images on our TV screens and in newspapers we know the blame is immediately attributed to the landlord, weather they are at fault or not. The one report I saw from the BBC on Awaab’s case even pointed out the presence of drying clothes on radiators, a red flag in my experience.

Older rentals

We are all very well aware however that there are many properties in the private rented sector, and it would seem also in the social housing sector, that fall well be low safe housing standards. With older properties, especially stone built and solid wall brick housing, insulating them is problematic, therefore heat loss and consequently heating costs are very high.

It’s unfair to expect tenants to spend a disproportionately high amount of their hard earned income to feed an inefficient heating system, or a poorly insulated and draughty home, where warmth simply dissipates itself far too quickly.

With around 20 per cent of the PRS rental housing stock, according to the English Housing Survey, being below standard, and a high proportion of those with attics with no insulation at all, is it any wonder that tenants in these properties cannot afford to maintain their homes in a condition that would prevent condensation and mould.

Additionally, how many rental homes are fitted with modern high efficiency heating boilers or with automatic extractor fans in kitchens and bathrooms? These are two pre-requisites for combating condensation but far too many rental homes simply do not have them.

With property management professionals employed by the likes of housing associations falling foul of this nightmare, what chance for the small-scale private landlord – you may well ask?

The way I read this: it’s no longer a game for the casual amateur, or the accidental landlord who lets property on a wing and a prayer, no more aware of the property laws and required conditions than the ordinary man in the street.

Letting property calls for investment. It calls for investing in your rentals to make sure they come up to modern and safe standards which will meet the coming Decent Homes Standard and the higher energy efficiency standard. This is likely to be a minimum of an EPC rating of “C” in the not too distant future.

If you are serious about letting out property, in the future you need to think very carefully about how you provide and manage your housing, otherwise you could suffer a similar fate to that of Boroughwide Housing’s Gareth Swarbrick.

Home Inspections

A good starting point to safeguard yourself and your tenants is tackle this issue head on. Take the initiative and carry out a documented risk assessment inspection on all your rental properties now.

Identify any hazards and commit to tackling the worst examples of heath hazards. For example, fitting cooker hoods, and automatic extractor fans in those rooms where steam is likely to be generated most – kitchens and bathrooms. Upgrading an old boiler and making sure the insulation is up to modern standards.

Secondly, put some effort into educating your tenants into understanding the root causes of condensation and how to minimise the risk; no wet clothes on radiators; extract all steam at source and keep the heating on at a low level, even when out of the house. This keeps the whole fabric of the building warm, preventing condensation and pipes freezing up and bursting in the freezing winter weather. It actually costs less overall to keep a heating system on at a low level, than it does booting up the heating system up every time one returns home.

View Full Article: Comment: the condensation and mould crisis hits the headlines again

Council asks LZ readers for views on bid to increase PRS regulation

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The boss of a large London borough has asked LandlordZONE readers who have properties within its borders to respond to the council’s consultation on a larger selective licensing scheme.

Tony Jemmott, who heads up Brent councils’ private housing team, says landlords and tenants have until 23^rd January 2023 to respond before the council moves to win approval for the scheme, which is to be introduced in two phases.

These will replace the existing selective licensing scheme that was introduced in 2018 covering five wards within the borough, but which expired in May this year after running for five years.

Now, Brent is proposing to bring in selective licensing across 21 wards kicking off within just three wards that are the poorest and containing PRS stock most urgently in need of licensing, later expanding it with a further 18.

Due to its size, this designation would need confirmation by the Department of Levelling up Housing and Communities (DLUHC), but if given the green light would go live in 2024.

Consultation call

Jemmott (pictured) has urged any affected readers to fill in the questionnaire. “Whether you are a private tenant, landlord, managing or letting agent, local resident or business, we want to hear your views on the councils’ proposals for private property licensing in Brent,” he says.

If this all sounds familiar, then it landlords with good memories will recall that Brent tried a similar expansion in 2020 just before the Covid pandemic struck, this time increasing it to cover 15 wards.

The secretary of state at the time rejected its bid, with NRLA spokesperson John Stewart saying it would just “identify the good landlords who register and then tax them. [The proposals] do nothing to flush out the criminals who stay under the radar”.

Landlords wishing to let Brent know their views on the new proposals should fill it in here.

View Full Article: Council asks LZ readers for views on bid to increase PRS regulation