The complex law surrounding property condition and disrepair

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This is the 12th post in my 2017 Legal Update series.

One of the chief complaints made by tenants against landlords is the poor condition of their rented property and the difficulties they face in getting anything done about it.

And one of the chief problems for both landlords and tenants is the multiplicity of laws relating to this area – which makes this whole topic difficult and confusing. Although basically the laws fall into two types:

• Those based on the civil law, and
• Those based on the criminal law

The difference between the two is that

• For civil law breaches a tenant can sue for an injunction to get the work done and claim compensation.
• Criminal law breaches are not normally enforced by tenants (although this is possible for some claims for example claims under the Environmental Protection Act 1990). In practice, these laws are mostly enforced by local authorities (NOT as a rule the Police) ultimately by bringing a prosecution in the Magistrates Courts. Although as we saw in this post there are a number of other things they can do now too.

The Civil Law and Disrepair

This is basically the statutory repairing obligations set out in section 11 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 plus whatever you promise to do in your tenancy agreement.

S11 basically says that landlords are responsible for keeping in repair

• The structure and exterior of the property (including drains, gutters and external pipes) and
• The installations for the supply of gas, electricity, water and sanitation and
• The installations for space and water heating

Note that the rules are basically about things going wrong or being ‘broken’. A tenant has no right to request a court to order that something be improved. Even if that would be the better solution.

So, landlords can only be ordered to repair leaky roofs, not replace them. And to repair broken windows rather than replace them with double glazing.

The procedure for bringing these claims, for a tenant, is not easy and they have to first comply with the Pre-Action Protocol for Disrepair claims. However, it is something which many solicitor’s firms are offering ‘no win no fee’ agreements to tenants for, although this is mainly for tenants of social housing, not those in the private sector (yet).

Criminal law and the HHSRS

The starting point here is generally when the Council sends out an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) to do a Housing Health and Safety Rating System Inspection of properties (HHSRS) – usually when tenants contact them to complain.

As part of this exercise the property is assessed against 29 hazards – for example excess cold, damp and mould, fire, and excess heat. If this inspection throws up a ‘category one’ hazard then the Local Authority have a duty to do something about it.

What they will generally do is contact the landlord and ask them to sort the issues out, then serve an improvement notice if this is not done.

The next stage, if the work was still not done, used to be prosecution in the Magistrates Court. However, as we saw in my earlier post in this series, Local Authorities now have additional powers to serve Civil Penalty notices and also to apply for Rent Repayment Orders – if landlords fail to comply with Improvement Notices. When Banning Orders come in, this will be another option.

So, you need to make sure you are compliant.

This is a legal update series, I am a housing lawyer and don’t have the practical knowledge to be able to tell you, for example, how to configure your boiler or comply with Building regs. However, the HHSRS is a health and safety standard. Therefore, so long as you comply with all health and safety requirements, use properly qualified contractors, and try actively to ensure that your properties are safe, you should be OK.

To be able to prove this if challenged by the authorities you need to keep records – for example:

• Receipts for work done and any certifications
• Receipts for furniture, fixtures and fittings. New furniture sold by a reputable company for example must comply with the furniture regs or it cannot be sold.
• Records of any work such as PAT certificates that may be obtained in respect of your appliances
• Photographs showing your property in good condition – for example as part of your inventory.

Most landlords are proud of their properties and take care to keep them in good condition. If this is you, you should have little to fear.

Further information:

We did not have any talks at our 2017 Conference on these topics. However, recordings of Peter Marcus’ talk on Disrepair and Giles Peaker’s talk on the HHSRS from our 2016 Conference in Manchester, are both available as ‘bonus’ items in our 2017 Conference Course.

You will find more information about the Conference Course here.  There is a discount voucher for Property118 readers which is pp118cc30 – apply this on the checkout page and it will reduce the payment by 30%.  Note however that the coupon will expire after 16 September.

Peter also did a day’s workshop for us on Landlords Repairing Obligations last November which was filmed and this is now an online course and available as part of our Summer Training courses. It carries 4 hours CPD.

In this talk Peter looks mainly at landlords contractual repairing obligations (in s11 onwards in the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985) and the court processes you need to follow both to bring and defend a disrepair claim. However, he also considers landlords obligations under their tenancy agreements, the Defective Premises Act 1972, private and statutory nuisance claims and the Gas Regulations.

You can find out more about this online course here plus you will find a short video here.

There is also a certain amount of information on my Landlord Law site plus members can always ask me questions in the members forum.

You can find out more about Landlord Law here

The next post will be on HMOs.

Tessa Shepperson is a specialist landlord & tenant lawyer and runs the popular Landlord Law online information service.

To see all the articles in my series please Click Here

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Lawyer warns of Section 21 confusion

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Eviction:

Section 21, the possession procedure in England, which has been a lifeline for landlords with bad tenants since the introduction of the Housing Act 1988, has undergone changes recently which have the potential to stymie an eviction attempt, if the rules are not followed to the letter.

No landlord wants to evict a good rent paying tenant who is looking after the property, but sometimes a limit is reached: rent arrears start to build, damage is occurring which shouldn’t be, or the tenant is causing neighbour problems.

In this situation a landlord owes it to himself and others to commence the eviction process, which, even in the best case scenario, can take around 3 to 6 months.

Danielle Hughes from Kirwans has written that landlords are issuing incorrect Section 21 notices, resulting in thousands of pounds being wasted on aborted possession claims and extensive delays in recovering a property.

In any case, a high proportion of Section 21 claims are thrown out by judges because of technical errors such as incorrectly served or defective notices, no proof of service, deposit protection errors, no property licence where it’s required, the list goes on.

But under the new rules, a new notice (the Form 6A Notice) applies (tenancies commencing post 1st October 2015) and additional tenancy requirements mean that the chances of error are far greater.

Landlords and agents will now struggle to get a successful eviction if they don’t have a rigorous system in place when they set-up new tenancies, making sure that all the documentary requirements have been met.

The old Section 21 notices – Notice Fixed-Term s21(1)(b) and Periodic s21(4)(a) – should still be used for AST tenancy agreements commencing before 1^st October 2015.

The older notices do not require the tenancy to meet the new requirements, so unless you are sure you can fully meet the new requirements, don’t use the new notices (Form 6A) for older tenancies.

Pre – 1 October 2015 Tenancies – Section 21 Requirements

With old tenancies this is what you need:

• A valid Section 21 Notice
• Proof of Service
• A valid Tenancy Agreement
• Deposit protection details and proof of service of (s213) notice
• Details of any licence requirements – for HMOs or in Selective Licensing areas

Post – 1 October 2015 Tenancies – Section 21 Requirements

• A valid Section 21 Notice
• Proof of Service
• A valid Tenancy Agreement
• Deposit protection details and proof of service of (s213) notice
• Details of any licence requirements – for HMOs or in Selective Licensing areas
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) served on tenant
• Gas Safety Certificate served on tenant
• The current version (at time of tenancy commencement) of the government’s “How to Rent Guide”

From 1^st October 2018, the new Form 6A will apply to all tenancies, new and old, so beware.

When applying to the court for accelerated possession (Court form N5b) or the standard route (Court Form N5 – where a hearing and a money claim are involved) landlords and agents should supply 3 copies of all the above documents to the court.

A further complication which could potentially stymie a claim involving new (Post 1^st October 2015) tenancies, is the new retaliatory eviction legislation. This applies where a tenant has made a report of the need for repairs and maintenance in a property. If the landlord does not respond quickly (within 14 days), and/or the local authority issues an appropriate repair notice, then a valid Section 21 notice cannot be served for 6 months after.

Also, whereas the old section 21 notices were of unlimited duration, the new notices cannot be served within the first 4 months on an AST tenancy, and they now have a limited life of 6 months – you must start a claim within the six months, or start again.

As the current court fee (July 2017) is set at £355, it is not in anyone’s interest to keep paying fees and delay the claim for 2 months while a new notice is served.

The whole process is manageable by landlords and agents so long as they can pay strict attention to the rules and process all documentation correctly – do this and all your possession claims will be successful. You can of course request that the judge to issue an order in damages against the tenant, but whether he or she can pay is another matter?

See also: New Section 21 Rules: www.landlordzone.co.uk/content/new-section-21-rules

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Lawyer warns of Section 21 confusion | LandlordZONE.

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Should we initiate collective enfranchisement or is it too late?

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A few months back the freeholder of our building wrote to all the leaseholders (via his solicitor) giving us ‘Section 5B’ Notice of his intention to sell the Freehold via auction with a deadline for the majority of qualifying leaseholders to make him an offer.

So the first thing we leaseholders did was make sure there was enough qualifying interest to purchase the freehold among us and conduct a full survey to get an idea of the value for the freehold.

We then responded with the full names and signatures of all the qualifying leaseholders of our acceptance of offer under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1987 Part 1 and requesting receipt of this notice and advising them of the solicitor who would be acting on our behalf for this matter.

They responded to this requesting an offer for which we duly replied.

Since them they have responded advising that they wish to continue to auction. Is this the normal process? We have made an offer and would negotiate, but this seems to have stopped us in our tracks. If we have first right of refusal then why would he want to proceed to auction? If someone does make an unrealistic offer at auction how can we contest this?

We are desperately seeking some additional guidance as to our rights and how to proceed. Should we initiate collective enfranchisement, or is it too late?

Many thanks

Mark

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Leaseholder Landlords and the Law

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This is the 11th post in my 2017 Legal Update series.

In most landlord & tenant situations where the landlord is a freeholder it is comparatively simple. You have a landlord. And a tenant.

However, if the landlord is himself a tenant under a long lease, it gets a bit more complicated. You will also have:

• The freeholder, and often
• The freeholder’s management company

How does this work in practice?

The answer is, not always as anticipated. If you rent a property under a long lease you have to be aware that you cannot always deal with it as if you were the freeholder. You are bound by the terms of your lease.

For example, your lease may prohibit subletting the property to tenants!

So, before you buy a flat as an investment property you need to check carefully the terms of the lease.

There has been a case, for example where the lease had a clause saying

“To use the flat as a private dwelling for the lessee and his family and for no other purpose”

Which, the First Tier Tribunal held, meant it could not be rented out to tenants.

Another lease had the wording:

“Not to use the premises hereby demised or permit the same to be used for any purpose whatsoever other than as a single private dwelling house in the occupation of the Lessee and his family.”

Which had a similar effect.  So be careful about this.

Then, even if you are using it as your home, you may find, like Ms Nemcova did in another case at the First Tier Tribunal, that you can’t let it out for weekends on Airbnb, because of the wording of the clause in the lease.

The problem about all of these is that, ultimately, if you carry on doing the prohibited thing, your landlord can forfeit your lease. Not something you will want to happen.

A question of repairs

Then there are issues about who is responsible for repair work. And can a landlord be held liable by their tenant for things which are actually the responsibility of the freeholder?

This issue came to a head in the recent case of Edwards v. Kumarasamy.

The Court of Appeal in that case basically found that the landlord was responsible for repairs to the exterior of the property even if the landlord had not been given notice and the repair in question was down to the freeholder.

To the relief of landlords and agents everywhere this decision was reversed by the Supreme Court who more or less re-instated the rule that landlords have to have been given notice of repairs before they are liable if they don’t do them.

However, that is not to say that problems will not arise in the future. So, make sure you keep yourself informed.

Further information:

Our 2017 Conference Course featured a talk by housing barrister Robert Brown specifically on leaseholder landlords and he discussed in greater detail the issues I have outlined above.

If you sign up for the course you will also get his comprehensive notes which include information about other issues he did not have time to discuss – in particular on service charges.

You will find more information about the Conference Course here.  There is a discount voucher for Property118 readers which is pp118cc30 – apply this on the checkout page and it will reduce the payment by 30%.  Note however that the coupon will expire after 16th September.

There is also a certain amount of information on my Landlord Law site plus members can always ask me questions in the members forum.

You can find out more about Landlord Law here

On Monday, I will be looking at landlords repairing obligations.

To see all the articles in my series please Click Here

Tessa Shepperson is a specialist landlord & tenant lawyer and runs the popular Landlord Law online information service.

To see all the articles in my series please Click Here

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Grainger ploughs into the PRS

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Build-to-Let:

Grainger PLC is to acquire, subject to planning, a site for a private rented sector (PRS) build-to-rent development at Gore Street in Salford, near Spinningfields, Manchester.

Grainger has identified Greater Manchester as a key marketplace its PRS investment strategy due to what it sees as its strong economic prospects and growth potential.

The £80m project will be forward funded by Grainger to be known as “UKLP Gore Street Limited” which will be a joint venture between UK Land & Property and Sir Robert McAlpine Enterprises, the latter being the main contractor.

Completion is anticipated for 2020 and will consist of 375 private rented homes with a mix of apartments and townhouses, with a range of amenities on site. Yield projections stand at c7% when fully let.

This acquisition is in line with Grainger’s divestment of its large portfolio of reversionary investments (occupied by regulated private tenants on Rent Act tenancies) and builds on its new strategy of targeting the private rented sector – build-to-let.

Grainger’s existing North West investments total over 1,200 rental homes, including its £100m investment at Clippers Quay in Salford which delivers 614 new rental homes. Construction is underway and first completions are expected in next year.

Helen Gordon, formerly of Nat West Bank and now CEO of Grainger, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, said:

“We are pleased today to announce this significant £80m investment to deliver 375 new, high quality, purpose built rental homes in Salford, near Spinningfields, building on our existing portfolio in and around Manchester city centre and leveraging our operational platform and Manchester regional office.”

In her March financial statement she stated:

“I am pleased to report that the pursuit of our strategy is delivering strong results. In the first six months of the year we have increased adjusted earnings by 39% and net rental income by 11%.

“We expect this momentum to continue now that we have secured £439m of private rented sector (“PRS”) investment, over half of our £850m target, and have good visibility on additional investment opportunities to meet our overall target. We are making good progress delivering our pipeline, and on average we are completing a new PRS building every two months over the next two years.

“Grainger is a focused, simpler and more efficient business. We have made changes to the way we operate in order to enhance returns, through reducing costs, simplifying processes and improving the scalability of our operating platform.

“The private rented sector growth opportunity is compelling with strong investment fundamentals. Our strategy to grow rents and simplify and focus the business puts Grainger in a strong position to deliver further sustainable income led growth.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Grainger ploughs into the PRS | LandlordZONE.

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Concerns over unintended consequences of fees ban in Commons debate

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The House of Commons debate held this morning was organised by Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton, and co-founder of Hunters Estate Agency was to look at the proposed lettings fees ban.

The proposed bill also includes capping security deposits at one month’s rent and holding deposits at one week’s rent.

The majority of MPs that took part in the debate did at least acknowledge concerns over the unintended consequences of a total fees ban for small businesses and low income or non UK tenants along with potential for rising rents and job losses.

However, Housing Minister, Alok Sharma, confirmed that holding deposits will be excluded from the legislation.

Mr Sharma said that the problem with fees is that the agent is chosen by the landlord giving the tenant little opportunity to negotiate or opt out of these fees. “A landlord is better placed to pay reference and credit check fees and anyway it is they who ask for the checks to be completed, not the tenant.”

Henry Bellingham, MP for North West Norfolk said he had received no complaints from tenants about letting agent fees with the average application fee being £325 and the average renewal fee £75.

Mr Sharma confirmed the government’s response to the fees ban consultation would be published very shortly and acknowledged that the ‘broken’ housing market remains one of the greatest barriers to progress in Britain and he felt capping fees would be largely ineffective as it would be harder to understand and enforce.

David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, commented on the debate saying: “We welcome this morning’s comments from Kevin Hollinrake MP around the unintended consequences of a total ban on letting agent fees.”

“It’s important that the government understands the value of the services agents carry out for both landlords and tenants when shaping its final legislation.”

“We are therefore disappointed in Alok Sharma’s comments today declaring that the government’s position remains that all fees will form part of the ban.”

“As Kevin acknowledges, the ban on fees for referencing checks will cause problems. Agents are required to carry out these checks by law, and they invest both time and resources to ensure this work is carried out properly.”

“The government must now consider exempting referencing checks from the ban as well.”

National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) CEO, Isobel Thomson, replied: “NALS welcomed the cross party debate on the fee ban and confirmation that the Minister has adopted a common sense approach on holding deposits with his announcement that they will be exempt from the ban, but he gave no clear indication of when legislation might come forward.

“We were encouraged that MPs quite rightly expressed concern about the implications of rent increases as a result of the ban and the impact on those least likely to afford them. Of real interest was the Minister’s commitment to consider the ban on tenant fees in the context of wider work in the private rented sector, something NALS called for earlier this year. This is positive news and an indication that he has listened to the call for an end to piecemeal legislation. His clear reference to regulation was welcome as well as his willingness to explore options for what a regulatory framework might look like.”

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Ocean View Sandown – Luxury retreat investment on the Isle of Wight

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Ocean View is a luxury retreat for the over 50s situated on Sandown Bay on the Isle of Wight. Due to the Isle of Wight being such a popular destination for older holidaymakers, a 10% net rental income for 10 years is guaranteed.

Residents can fully relax and enjoy fine dining experiences, a heated swimming pool, hair and beauty salons, a gym, spa and beautiful landscaped gardens. The existing building will be transformed into 60 studios and apartments and provides a mix of supported breaks, short stays and longer stays for those in later life.

Suites at Ocean View Sandown start from £89,950 with a net return of 10% per annum over a 10 ten years lease. The attractive returns are complemented by two guaranteed buy-back options in years 5 and 10 at 110% and 125% respectively. Units can be reserved for as little as £2,000.

Why Invest in Retirement Property in the Isle of Wight?

A quarter of the Isle of Wight’s population is aged 65 or over. As young people are leaving the island to chase jobs on mainland Britain, elderly people are settling on the island to take their place. Enquire today using the contact form below to find out how such a high percentage of over 65s can result in a lucrative opportunity for investment.

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Fire safety and landlords legal obligations

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This is the 10th post in my 2017 Legal Update series.

On the morning of Wednesday 14th June, I was due to travel down to London for a meeting. I got up early to do some admin, and then turned to the online version of the Guardian website.

I was transfixed by the horrific picture of a burning tower block. It haunted me for the rest of that day and it is still often in my thoughts. I am sure you will also remember it – and remember too where you were when you first saw it.

Grenfell and its aftermath has shaken us all and raised many questions

• What was the duty of care of Council officials to ensure that the building was fire safe?
• Why weren’t the fire regulations tightened up after similar fires in 2013?
• What does this incident tell us about our society and the differing standards applied to housing for ‘rich people’ and ‘poor people’.

Coming a bit closer to home – how does this affect YOU? We have all become much more sensitive to fire safety, but what are the actual obligations upon landlords in the private sector?

Test your cladding

The first thing to say is that if you have external cladding on your properties, particularly if it is a high-rise building, you should consider getting it tested (or ask for it to be tested if you do not own the block). There may be government help for this which you can read about here (NB you will find all the announcements relating to Grenfell here.

But what are private landlord’s legal obligations?

The Law

The main legislation is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This requires landlords (or the person who has control of the property – which could be the letting agent) to carry out fire risk assessments for properties.

There is no prescribed way to do this and it depends on the circumstances. If the property is a bungalow and all doors and windows open out onto the ground floor, then provided you have the proper smoke alarms fitted, you will probably be alright. However, if the property is a high-rise building, it would be best to get a proper professional fire risk assessment report done by a specialist company.

If you are managing an HMO there may be extra requirements – you will need to speak to your Local Authority about this.

The other important thing to bear in mind is the Local Authority powers under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System which come under the Housing Act 2004. Fire is one of the 29 hazards which EHOs have to test for. If your property fails the test you could be facing an improvement notice.

Smoke alarms

You should now have fitted smoke alarms on all floors of rented property and CO alarms in all rooms with solid fuel burners.

These regulations came into force on 1 October 2015 and I did a post on the blog at that time here. If you have not got these alarms fitted, make sure that you do this asap.

Further information:

There is quite a lot of information online in particular on Local Authority websites.

So far as our 2017 Conference Course is concerned, I have included fire safety expert Warren Spencer’s talk to our 2015 Conference as a bonus item – the law has not changed significantly since 2015.

You will find more information about the Conference Course here.  There is a discount voucher for Property118 readers which is pp118cc30 – apply this on the checkout page and it will reduce the payment by 30%.  Note however that the coupon will expire after 16th September.

We also had a webinar on Fire Safety for our Landlord Law members recently as part of our members training, and the recording of this is available for Landlord Law members on the site.

You can find out more about Landlord Law here

Tomorrow I will be discussing leaseholder landlords

Tessa Shepperson is a specialist landlord & tenant lawyer and runs the popular Landlord Law online information service.

To see all the articles in my series please Click Here

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London commercial property sees strongest trading in 10 years

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Record Commercial Sales:

London commercial property has hit an £llbn record so far this year, with the City of London seeing it’s strongest trading in a decade.

Savills, the property agency and consultancy, has produced data which shows July turnover was £2.1bn across 11 deals, equating to an average lot size of £190.92m. The sale of The Walkie-Talkie, 20 Fenchurch Street, EC3 accounted for 61% of July’s turnover. Total turnover for the year has now reached £7.4bn across 77 deals (£96.10m average lot size), which is 51% up on this point last year. The rolling 12-month total turnover is currently £10.6bn, 41% up on the long-term average.

In the City market, Savills say they are currently monitoring 57 investment opportunities totalling circa £4.1bn. Of which, 22 are currently under-offer totalling circa £0.8bn, leaving an estimated £3.3bn worth of available opportunities. The 10 largest available assets account for 75% of total availability.

In London’s West End market, £262m was transacted in the same month, with the largest deal the sale of a building on the Strand, for £68.25m.

Asian investors continue to dominate the market, accounting for 63pc of total City turnover year-to-date, followed by European investors, at 17pc and UK investors at ll%. In the West End market, Asian investors accounted for approximately 50pc of turnover to end July, with UK institutions accounting for just 2pc of acquisitions by value.

Savills prime City yield remains at 4.00%. The spread between the City and the West End is still just 75bps with the West End prime yield currently at 3.25%

Stephen Down, head of the Savills central London investment team, told the Daily Telegraph that the value of deals for 2017 as a whole could surpass last year’s total of around £17bn:

“Although the restrictions announced earlier in August by the Chinese government will reduce £2.35bn. However, we have noticed their buying criteria has become increasingly selective.”

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FCA looking to bring back Retirement interest only mortgages

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking to allow the reinstatement of Retirement interest only mortgages on main residences by excluding them from the definition of a lifetime mortgage.

In a consultation paper the FCA plans to class Retirement interest only mortgages  as a separate interest only mortgage for older consumers where, assuming there is no default, the loan is only repaid on a specified life event such as the customer’s death or move into residential care and the sale of the property.

The FCA thinks that these interest only loans into retirement could help older people whose mortgages are reaching the end of term with no, or a short fall in, repayment vehicle. Also older borrowers looking to release equity without wanting the final cost of rolled up interest when the property is sold or inherited.

The consultation paper said: “Retirement interest-only mortgages have significantly different risks compared to lifetime mortgages. In particular, they do not feature the roll-up of interest, meaning that consumers are not at risk of rapid equity erosion and the subsequent reduction of funds available for a bequest.

“Consumers are also more likely to be familiar with the product features of a mortgage involving interest payments. However, we do consider that there are some risks associated with lending with no fixed term and we are proposing to add a small number of additional requirements for the sale of these loans.”

Alice Watson, Head of Marketing at Retirement Advantage Equity Release, told the Financial Reporter: “It is great that these proposals could lead to a wider range of options available to older borrowers, but retirement interest only mortgages are not the only option. Retirees should ensure they are considering the full range of solutions available to them.

“Lifetime mortgages are a viable and a flexible option, and provide a number of safeguards that the proposed retirement interest only mortgages may not offer. Lifetime mortgage customers can choose an interest only option, where they repay just the interest on their equity release mortgage. One difference between this and the proposed retirement interest only mortgage is that, if customers miss their monthly interest payments, they can switch to interest roll up without threat of repossession, so long as they abide by the terms and conditions, which offers customers real peace of mind.

“The proposed retirement interest only mortgage may also be offered without the client needing to take financial advice. We believe this carries its own risks and could potentially leave the customer worse off. With lifetime mortgages, customers have the safeguards of financial advice, which means that a holistic overview to their retirement planning has been taken and the most appropriate solution has been recommended. Without seeking professional financial advice, there is a risk that customers may not be aware of which products are best for their particular circumstances.”

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