Three easy-to-miss legal updates every landlord should know about!

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With 168 rules and regulations to follow when letting a property, it can be a nightmare for landlords to stay up to date with legislation.

Here’s three upcoming changes worth knowing:

Right to Rent

If you’ve been letting to the same tenant for a long time or are new to buy-to-let, you might not realise the Government requires you to check whether your tenant is legally allowed to live in the country. Even if they have a British passport, you still need to carry out the checks. If you don’t, you could be fined thousands.

The good news is that you can carry out these checks remotely until 30th September. You can speak to the tenant via a video call and accept scans or photos of documents rather than having to see the originals.

There is also an updated code of practice that landlords must abide by, and it’s important to note that you cannot discriminate against prospective tenants who might be less easy to make checks on. Find more information here.

Landlord Licensing

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the ‘Renters’ Reform Bill’, which has been on the cards for a few years now. It’s expected this year and is likely to scrap Section 21, as well as introduce other changes.

One of the proposals that’s often overlooked is the requirement for landlords in England to have some form of regulation. This already exists in the rest of the UK – landlords have to register themselves and their properties, and anyone managing a property in Wales must also be licensed. So it’s highly likely that, as a landlord in England, you’re going to have to be either registered, licensed and/or belong to a redress scheme in the not-too-distant future.

Then there’s the extremely complicated local authority licensing schemes in England. Mandatory nationwide licensing only applies to ‘large’ HMOs in England and Wales – properties with five or more people, forming more than one household. However, each council also has the power to introduce their own additional and selective licensing schemes, which can apply to any rented property.

To add to the confusion, selective licensing schemes only run for five years, after which they can be renewed, scrapped or replaced with a different scheme. Some councils are great at making sure landlords are aware of changes and new schemes, but some do the absolute minimum, meaning changes can easily be missed.

It’s essential for landlords – especially if you don’t live in the same council area as the properties you let – to stay on top of local licensing schemes. If you don’t have the right licence for your property or if you breach any of the licence conditions, the council could fine you up to £30,000. Your tenants, or where tenants are in receipt of benefit, the Council can, apply to the First Tier Tribunal for a Rent Repayment Order which could require you to repay up to 12 months’ worth of rent.

Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms

In November 2021, the Government announced that there will be some changes to alarms coming soon. The proposed changes are quite cost effective and could protect you and your tenant, so we think it’s well worth implementing them now if you can:

1. CO2 alarms will be required in rooms with a combustion appliance (apart from gas cookers) in all tenures via building regulations – so for your home as well as the properties you let.
2. Landlords will need to repair or replace alarms if they’re reported as faulty. The cost of doing this is so low and they give such great peace of mind to protect tenants, it’s worth checking regularly that the smoke alarms are working properly.

How are you keeping up?

At Leaders we have expert agents who manage lettings compliance for our landlords. If you let through an agent, check how they stay legally compliant and if you self-manage, make sure you have a reliable way to keep up to date with ongoing changes.

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