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| Source: http://www.midlandepc.co.uk/ |
‘Average UK private home rents have increased 7.5% in the last 12 months while national average earnings now rising at 1.7%. The average cost of renting a home in the UK has risen more than four times as quickly as national average incomes, according to new findings released today from the May 2014 HomeLet Rental Index’
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| Source: http://www.rostons.co.uk/ |
‘Soaring numbers of people in private rented homes face eviction despite being up to date with their rent because rising house prices are prompting landlords to ask tenants to leave. In the last year, Citizens Advice Bureaux has seen a 38 per cent increase in desperate tenants coping with the threat of eviction even though they have no rent arrears, according to figures seen by the Independent.
More than 5,000 of these cases were reported to
Citizens Advice in 2013-14, up from 3,750 the previous year – and as the
housing shortage reaches critical levels, the figures show how increasingly
precarious the situation is for renters.
Eviction by private landlords is the most common
cause of homelessness encountered by Citizens Advice, causing one in 10 of the
80,000 problems with homelessness the charity saw in the last year.
Tenants report being evicted following a request to
carry out repairs, because the landlord wants to sell their home, or because
rents are suddenly hiked to unaffordable levels’
Tenants have statutory protection
under a raft of legislation such as the Rent Act 1977, Housing Act 1985,
Housing Act 1988, depending on the type of tenancy, and the Landlord &
Tenant 1985 in terms of obligations and responsibilities to carry out repairs.
It does appear that Landlords are choosing to ignore their statutory responsibilities
in increasing numbers in order to chase higher rental yields. So what can a tenant do in these circumstances?
I am regularly contacted by people who
experience difficulty, sometimes silence when contacting their landlord to
carry out repairs. In nearly all cases this involves private sector
Landlords who for some reason think that if they ignore their tenants for long
enough then they will just go away. The issue of course is that the
Tenant has rights and the Landlord has responsibilities under a whole raft of
legislation (as indicated above)) and vice versa. In the event that a Landlord fails to carry out
repairs for which he/she is responsible, a tenant can take action to remedy the
situation. The problem becomes magnified if the repair that is necessary is
something that may be dangerous or posing a health risk to the occupants.
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| Source: http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/ |
In my early career as a Building Surveyor I
undertook a number inspections on behalf of Solicitors who had been appointed
by Tenants where complaints had been made about living conditions and in
particular habitation standards in their homes. In those days a Surveyors
report would be used as evidence that a landlord had breached their duty under legislation
such as section 11 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 or Public Health Acts
such as the Environmental Protection Act 1990 or others. In order to assess
fitness for habitation at the time a Surveyor would consider the requirements
of something known as the ‘fitness standard’ under section 604 of the Housing
Act 1985. Nowadays an assessment of the health
& safety of a dwelling is considered under a much wider context under the
Housing Health & Safety Rating System 2006 (HHSRS). A tenant can contact their Local Authority
and request an inspection under HHSRS if they feel that there are health,
safety or habitation issues. The Local
Authority has enforcement powers under HHSRS where category 1 hazards are
identified. For more information on
HHSRS refer to my previous article (Link)
Nobody wants to go through a
legal process as this can be time consuming and expensive. Ultimately, however this is one form of
recourse that may be considered in which the tenant will effectively try to
force the landlord to meet their statutory obligations through the courts. In most cases tenants will not want to take
this option as costs (money, time and stress), will be deemed to negatively
outweigh the benefit that could be attained if successful. Note the word ‘if’, because there is never
any guarantees that legal proceedings will succeed. Although legal action
should be used as a last resort this is nevertheless an option that a tenant may
utilise.
Better regulation, particularly
of private landlords is essential to addressing some of the issues considered
above. Rather than dilly dally around
with suggestions the Government should introduce a landlord registration scheme
such as that introduced in Northern Ireland earlier this year. Under the scheme all private landlords are
required to register under the Scheme and it is an offence to commence a new
let of a residential property under a private tenancy without being registered.
In the rest of the UK there are currently a number of voluntary registration
schemes however the fact that they are not mandatory will mean that those who
are likely to cut corners or do not meet their responsibilities are hardly
likely to sign up! Therefore this is
something that has to become mandatory through legislation. Mandatory registration schemes can state minimum levels of
service that tenants should expect including transparent fees, improved
property conditions, better communication between landlords and tenants,
improved response times for repairs and maintenance and protected deposits. If all private landlords are required by law to
meet these requirements then they will be made to think twice about the manner
in which they deal with their tenants.
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