BREAKING: MP launches Bill to outlaw pet discrimination by landlords

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A Bill aimed at banishing the no-pet clause for rented homes has had its first reading in the Commons with cross-party support.

Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell’s Dogs and Domestic Animals (Accommodation and Protection) Bill aims to give tenants the right to live with their pet – provided they can prove they are responsible and caring.

He says the Government’s aim of removing no-pet clauses from its model tenancy agreement is a step in the right direction, but that it doesn’t go far enough.

“For most people, being separated from their dog is no different from being separated from their brother or sister,” says Rosindell.

“Sadly, pet owners who move into rented accommodation face the reality that their family could be torn apart, because most landlords in Britain have unnecessary bans or restrictions on pet ownership.”

The Romford MP aims to ensure that landlords’ concerns are met by making pet owners pass the test of responsible ownership; they’ll have to get a certificate from a vet before moving in, confirming that they have a healthy, well-behaved animal and are considered to be a responsible owner.

For dogs, a checklist would include being vaccinated and microchipped and being responsive to basic training commands.

Rosindell (pictured, left) points to France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland which have all outlawed blanket restrictions on pets in rented accommodation.

He adds: “The no-pet clause means that someone cannot have a dog over for even a short period for fear of recriminations or even losing their home. Such discrimination must now end.”

The Bill – known as Jasmine’s law after a Weimaraner owned by the Adams family in Surrey which can’t live in a rented house – is backed by 11 other cross-party MPs including Andrea Leadsom and Tim Farron, and gets its second reading on 29^th January.

Read: How insurance can be affected by tenants with pets.

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Brighton clamp-down on HMOs continues with £14,000 fine

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Three months after launching one of the most stringent HMO licensing rules in the UK, Brighton & Hove council has now secured the prosecution of a student landlord including a fine of £14,000.

Londoner Shirley White had applied for an HMO licence three years ago to operate her Brighton property as a student HMO but this had been rejected both on existing density grounds and because one of the rooms was below the local minimum size requirements of 7.5 sq m.

In June the council’s density rules were intensified, making it even more difficult to secure HMO licenses in many parts of the city.

White appealed unsuccessfully in February this year and was taken to court by the council.

At a hearing this week at Brighton Magistrate’s Court White pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed HMO and was fined £14,000 based on the extra income she had earned from the property, plus costs of £2,000.

“Unlicensed and unapproved HMOs have significant negative impacts on communities such as Higher Bevendean,” Ward councillor Daniel Yates (left) told Brighton & Hove News.

“The numbers of licensed HMOs in their area meant that this HMO could not gain the correct planning permission and I’m delighted to see the landlord paying the price for flouting the rules for a quick buck.

“The sooner this property resumes offering a family home the better.”

During a planning inspection visit it was established that White had rented out the £340,000 property to three students and a professional for £1,752 a month.

Read: HMO tenancy agreements – what you need to include.

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Help bring a Judicial Review against Bailiffs refusing to enforce warrants

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The infamous words of Jenrick at the start of the pandemic: “No renter who has lost income due to coronavirus will be forced out of their home, NOR WILL ANY LANDLORD FACE UNMANAGEABLE DEBTS”

Nothing more was heard about landlords only incessant campaigns for Private landlords not to evict

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EICR again – Which one is correct?

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In the NAPIT booklet EIRC Codebreakers 18th edition version Section 5.12.3 it states cables in walls not protected less than 50mm deep not RCD protected will be C2 failure.

In the Electrical installation condition reporting:

Classification codes for domestic and similar electrical installations Issue 5 it says on Page 14;

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EXCLUSIVE: Why selective licensing doesn’t work

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Reading the housing news, I see several local councils are proposing to introduce more selective licensing schemes (SLS).

My eyes rolled when I saw that.

Over the years I’ve had a number of properties which have been subject to such schemes. Stamping out anti-social behaviour and improving the quality of local housing stock were their main objectives, they claimed.

Signing away several thousands of pounds (the cost of each council varies, but it’s usually around the five-hundred-pound mark with the scheme lasting up to five years), I queried the council on their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and how they would judge the scheme was a success.

Having been on three different schemes now, I can tell you not one council has ever come back to me with those results. Not one council has ever shown me how the schemes work.

Out of the schemes I’ve been on, one ended a couple of years ago. That scheme got 66% of landlords to sign up. That means 34% of landlords did not sign up.

Property standards

What, I asked, were they going to do about this? Surely those who didn’t sign up were the ones to worry about? If a license was required to rent out a property and almost a third were still unlicensed (and to my knowledge, unchecked), how would this improve property standards – one of the main tenets of the scheme?

I never got a decent reply, they told me they were looking into it. After several enquiries over the course of a couple of years, I gave up.

A bit like when I asked what improvements did they get from the introduction of the scheme and how they felt they met their KPIs?

Silence. Stonewalled.

And so when I read yet more councils are planning to introduce SLS, I can’t help but wonder maybe other people have different experiences? Perhaps other councils are doing it better?

Basic information

So I made a point of speaking to other landlords about their experiences. Most of them signed up, sent money and then after a few weeks got a license in the post. Many were not even asked to provide the most basic property information – the latest gas safety check!

How then can a council deem a property is of an acceptable standard when they haven’t even got the CP12 on file? How can councils claim they are ‘improving standards’ when most are not visiting a property, let alone requesting basic information?

I try to be a good landlord and I’m happy to engage with local councils about improving areas and housing standards, but to me these schemes appear to be based upon a presumption that ‘something should be done’ rather than asking: what needs to be done?  

Any future SLS, if it is to be successful, needs to be transparent, accountable and clear about KPIs, willing to publicly share information and engage with private sector landlords.

The Secret Landlord

The Secret Landlord has been renting, refurbishing and selling properties across the UK for almost two decades. Her book, ‘Parasite? The Secret Diary of a Landlord’ is out today.

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Fined! Landlord with ten-year track record pleads ignorance over tenancy deposit law

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A landlord who kept his tenant’s deposit in a tin at his mother’s house has been fined £1,500 for failing to lodge it in an approved protection scheme.

Mark Bradley, from Gourock, Scotland (pictured), didn’t protect his tenant’s deposit for five and a half years – instead, she paid £600 to his mother in instalments for a ‘rental bond’ in April 2014.

The money remained in the tin until the end of the tenancy in September 2019, when the tenant asked for £150 back to pay for van removals, which his mother gave her in cash.

However, when she asked for the rest of her money, Bradley said he should keep it due to rent arrears – which the tenant had agreed to pay out of the deposit – and damage to the property.

Bradley told the Housing and Property Chamber first-tier tribunal for Scotland that he still had the remaining £450 in cash as his mother had paid it back to him.

Ten years

Although he had been a landlord for 10 years, he had never managed the property himself and wasn’t aware of a landlord’s duties.

He added that his mother had forgotten to protect the money as she was dealing with other family issues.

Eddie Hooker, CEO of mydeposits, says there’s no excuse for any deposit not to be protected with an approved scheme.

“The tenant’s deposit could have easily been misplaced or misappropriated and they have also been denied access to an impartial resolution service at the end of the tenancy,” he says. “These are exactly the reasons why the deposit schemes were set up.”

Mydeposits estimates that only 85% of deposits across the country are protected in authorised schemes; including Scotland, this equates to more than 500,000 deposits that fall outside protection.

Picture credit: Dave souza – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=818190

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Is government about to do a U-turn on rent arrears loans in England?

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The Government could be considering a U-turn over its refusal to offer tenant loans after several peers called for an England-wide scheme during a debate in the House of Lords.

Last month, Housing Minister Christopher Pincher rejected calls from MPs to give tenants more financial support, but yesterday his counterpart Lord Greenhalgh wouldn’t dismiss the idea.

When asked if he would be introducing a hardship loan scheme to help pay-off COVID-related rent arrears – which both Welsh and Scottish renters now have access to – he replied: “We need to get the balance right between the rights of renters and protecting and safeguarding the interests of landlords.”

In a debate on rent, evictions and Covid-19, Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate told peers that the welfare of tenants should be safeguarded fairly without destroying the financial viability of innocent landlords, who had an interest in maintaining good tenants.

“With rent arrears above £400 million and to avoid a future homelessness crisis, have the Government considered developing an equitable solution for both tenants and landlords by providing a financial package to pay off rent arrears built up as a direct result of the coronavirus?” he asked.

Conservative Lord Flight agreed that there should be more protection for struggling landlords.

He added: “A lot of landlords are elderly people and their source of income may be the rental from one property. We have to look at both renters and those who are renting.”

Chris Norris, policy director for the National Residential Landlords Association, says it’s been calling for months for Covid-related hardship loans that are interest free, guaranteed by the Government and paid directly to landlords.

“It is a welcome development that ministers now appear to be considering this and we urge them to act fast to help landlords and tenants to sustain tenancies,” he tells LandlordZONE.

Watch the debate in full.

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Are you a ‘Rent to Rent’ Landlord?

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Do you ‘Rent to Rent’ or Are you considering ‘Ren to Rent?

‘Rent to rent’ can be lucrative and many landlords and property owners have done very well from it:

Property owners can earn an income from their property without having to do any management work

Landlords can run a landlord business without having to invest in a property themselves

Situations where it can work well include:

• Letting agents who manage a property as tenant rather than as managing agent
• Universities and Colleges who use the property as accommodation for their students

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BREAKING: Two thirds of letting agents report 10% or less rent arrears rate

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Nearly two thirds of letting agents have said that 10% of their tenants have rent arrears, a new industry poll has revealed.

Conducted by accreditation body Safeagent, it also reveals that 21% of agents have between 10% and 20% of their tenants in arrears while 7% said they had none.

And among those tenants who are in arrears, agents said a significant majority were either one or two months’ behind (39% and 33% respectively) while only 13% of firms said tenants had arrears of more than three months. And among those who had rent arrears, a significant proportion had simply refused to pay their rent.

Most agent’s landlords were willing to help their tenants and 86% had offered those getting into arrears a payment plan, a quarter had tried mediation, 20% had decided to sell their property and 37% had chosen eviction.

The most common reason for arrears was tenants losing their jobs (see full list below), says Safeagent, revealing that agents are most worried about the ending of the furlough scheme later this month, although a new scheme is due to be introduced for areas under lockdown.

Agents also said the ongoing eviction restrictions were becoming ‘a real issue’.

Isobel Thomson, Safeagent Chief Executive (pictured, left), says: “Clearly our sector is facing tough times, but where tenants are in difficulty, it is clear that agents are working to support tenants and landlords in finding solutions to repay arrears and keep people in their homes.”

Advice: How to stop tenants falling into arrears.

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Can private landlords refuse to let to Housing Benefit claimants?

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Those who believe that Government is not aware of the issues facing landlords in the PRS  may be surprised by the detailed analysis in the Briefing Paper published on 13th October by the House of Commons library.

The summary is quoted below but I recommend reading the whole report

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