Landlords
Information / Legislation
Chase Residential Ltd would like to inform all Landlords that the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 have been approved by parliament and has come into force on 1st October 2015.
We would advise Landlords to read the following and to take action to comply.
The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015
Working alarms save lives in the event of a fire in your home you are at least four times more likely to die if there is no working smoke alarm.
Private sector landlords are required from 1 October 2015 to have at least one smoke alarm installed on every storey of their properties and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room containing a solid fuel burning appliance (e.g. a coal fire, wood burning stove). After that, the landlord must make sure the alarms are in working order at the start of each new tenancy.
The requirements will be enforced by local authorities who can impose a fine of up to £5,000 where a landlord fails to comply with a remedial notice.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has just issued the explanatory booklets below which you will find helpful in understanding the Regulations.
Also see link below for information on how to install a fire alarm.
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/SmokeAlarms.asp
Disclaimer: The following is only our opinion and is written without liability to Chase Residential Ltd whatsoever. For clarification of any issues we strongly advise that you contact your solicitor or local authority or visit the website www.communities.gov.uk
ASSURED SHORTHOLD TENANCY LEVEL TO RISE TO £100k PER ANNUM.
We would like to bring to your attention that the Government has announced several new levels of protection for tenants in the private rental sector.
One of the main changes will be to raise the threshold for an AST from £25k to £100k pa.
- This means from the 1st October 2010 all tenancies with annual rents up to £100k will become an AST and will need to be protected with one of the three government - approved tenancy deposit schemes.
Landlords with existing General Agreement which will become AST when the rental threshold is increased will not need to protect their tenants deposits in one of the three government - approved tenancy deposit schemes, although we would highly recommend that is good practice to do so. However if the tenancy is renewed on or after the 1st October, or a new deposit is taken you will have to protect the deposit.
Company Lets are not included in this new legislation.
If you need more information please contact Tom Dominic or Dharmesh Mohane on info@chaseresidential.co.uk
ENERGY PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATE.
From the 1st of October 2008, all rental properties with a new tenancy in England and Wales will be required to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).
A landlord will need to provide an EPC, which will be valid for ten years, to prospective tenants the first time you let or re-let your property after the 1st October 2008. However you will not need to provide an EPC certificate to tenants that renew their contracts as it is not necessary to supply an EPC to an existing tenant.
What is an Energy Performance Certificate?
The Energy Performance Certificate tells you how efficient and environmentally friendly your property is. The energy efficiency is worked out on a scale of A-G.
A being the most efficient and G being the least.
Part of the EPC is a recommendation report which will list the potential rating that your home could achieve, if you made changes. The report lists improvements that you could carry out and how this would change the energy and carbon emission rating of the property.
* You can use this information to help cut our fuel bills
* Improve energy performances in your home.
*Help cut carbon emissions
Who carries out the EPC’s
Energy Performance Certificates are carried out by a fully qualified Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs). The assessor will visit your property and assess the age construction and location of all the information that he takes down will be fed into a computer, which will calculate ratings and generate a certificate. Either yourself or we can organise this for you. Each property will require an EPC which will last for 10 years.
How do I get one?
Either yourself or Chase Residential can commission one from an accredited Domestic Assessor ( DEA).
DEAs can be found in your local directories.
Tenancy Deposit Protection.
The 6th April 2012 Brings Changes in Tenancy Deposit Protection - Localism Act 2012
What are the changes;
The deposits must be protected and the Prescribed Information provided within 30 days ( increase from 14 days ).
A landlord WILL be obliged to protect the deposit within 30 days and if he/she fails to do so he/she is in breach of the legislation and the tenant can immediately issue proceeding against the landlord.
The penalty can be up to 3 times the value of the deposit.
TENANCY DEPOSIT PROTECTION SCHEME
Every private Landlord in England and Wales letting private residential property is by law required to join one of four government - authorised tenancy deposit protection schemes if:
The start date of the tenancy is after 6 April 2007 (existing tenancies prior to this date will not be effected by this legislation) The tenancy is let under an Assured Short Term tenancy agreement.
The deposit must be registered within 30 days of receipt and the tenants informed which means in reality that if you use an agent like Chase Residential where the deposit is collected @ 2 days before the move-in the timescale for the landlord is actually reduced to 28 days from the date of move-in.
As we do not hold deposits we would advise you, our Landlord to look into the schemes that are on offer. If you have any problems with this procedure just contact the office that you have been dealing with and they will guide you through the whole process step by step.
The 3 schemes are:
The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS) - Custodial and Insured deposit protection scheme – The custodial deposit protection scheme is free to use and open to all Landlords and Letting Agents. The service is funded entirely from the interest earned from deposits held. The Insured deposit protection scheme has no registration or annual renewal fee but charges from £15.00 per deposit registered. The Landlord retains the deposit and protection will be provided to the tenant(s) for the duration of the tenancy. Landlords and Letting Agents will be able to register and make transactions on line. Paper forms will also be available should internet access be an issue. The scheme will be supported by a dedicated call centre and an independent dispute resolution service.
For more information, visit www.depositprotection.com or call 0845 226 7837
MyDeposits - This insurance-based tenancy deposit protection scheme enables Landlords to hold deposits. The fee for joining this scheme is £20 and from £18.00 per deposit protected by the deposit protection scheme. The protection covers the duration of the tenancy and if the tenant(s) continues onto a Statutory Periodic Tenancy. A new protection fee is needed at the start of every new fixed term AST agreement.
For more information, visit www.mydeposits.co.uk or call 0333 321 9401
The Dispute Service (TDS) is an insurance-backed deposit protection and dispute resolution scheme which has been established in 2003 to provide dispute resolution and complaints handling for the lettings industry. The scheme enables letting agents and landlords to hold their deposits.
There is no fee for joining this scheme but will cost from £14.70 to register a deposit.
For more information, visit www.thedisputeservice.co.uk or call 0330 303 0030
*If you are a landlord that lives overseas you have to join the custodial deposit protection scheme.
If a deposit is not protected, the landlord will be breaking the law. The Landlord will be unable to regain possession of the property using notice-only grounds for possession under the Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. The tenant can apply for a court order requiring the deposits to be protected, or for the prescribed information to be given to them.
If the court finds your landlord hasn’t protected your deposit, it can order the person holding the deposit to either:
repay it to the tenant
pay it into a custodial TDP scheme’s bank account within 14 days
The court may also order the landlord to pay you up to 3 times the deposit within 14 days of making the order.
What is the Tenancy Deposit Scheme?
Tenancy Deposit Scheme
The government introduced a provision in the Housing Act 2004, whereby it will be a requirement that all landlords/agents that wish to take a monetary deposit will need to place the deposit into a Tenancy Deposit Scheme this scheme was introduced in April 2007. The tenancy deposit scheme is described in sections 212 to 215 and schedule 10 within the Housing Act 2004.
WHY?
It was introduced to safeguard tenants' deposits which are paid in connection with Assured Shorthold Tenancies against unscrupulous landlords and agents who withhold the deposits with no justified reason, it helps to facilitate with resolving disputes over the return of the deposit. Basically the scheme has been introduced to reassure tenants that the return of the deposit is a fair deal due to the fact that the agent or landlord is a member of scheme which uses an independent adjudicator.
How does it work?
There are two types of schemes on offer a Custodial Scheme and an Insurance based scheme.
Custodial Scheme — in this scheme the deposit is forwarded to a designated third party. It is then held by this party throughout the tenancy until the termination of the tenancy and is returned when all parties are happy with the appropriation of the deposit.
Insurance Scheme — this is whereby the landlord or the agent holds onto the deposit but the landlord or agent is involved in a scheme that ensures that should the landlord withhold the deposit then the scheme shall pay out.
For more information you go to www.communities.gov.uk
HMO Licensing
What are the changes?
Licensing will be broken up into 2 sections; mandatory licensing, additional licensing and selective area licensing which could be introduced by the LHA.
Mandatory Licenses— All properties that are more than 3 stories high, this does include basements and attics, which are occupied by 5 or more tenants where 2 or more tenants are unrelated will be a HMO and require mandatory licensing.
Discretionary Licenses—The legislation will allow LHA's to extend the definition of an HMO if they so wish, to any property with 2 or more unrelated tenants.
As the LHA can introduce additional licensing schemes and selective area licensing schemes landlords will need to ensure that they keep up to date with the actions of their LHA.
What are the license requirements?
All licenses will have provisions for anti-social behaviour by tenants which will ultimately be the responsibility of the landlords.
In addition to this the license will specify how many tenants can reside at the property and the minimum facilities required including the number of toilets, baths, showers and kitchens etc. for the number of tenants and the property needs to fulfill the safety requirements.
What happens if the property does not meet the standards?
If the property fails to meet the minimum standards required then the LHA may:
· Grant a license subject to a provision being made about ensuring that extra facilities are supplied within a certain period.
· Grant a license for a smaller number of occupants.
· Refuse to grant a license until the standards have been met.
Are there any fees and how long does a license last?
Yes there will be a fee. The fees vary between LHA's as it is up to them to set the fees. They currently vary between £300 to £500 however it has been stated that one is quoting £1100. These licenses will be valid for five years however it may be possible to get a shorter license.
Are there any penalties?
It will be a criminal offence to operate an HMO without a license and will be subject to a fine of up to £20,000. The tenants within your property may also apply for a rent repayment order whereby the tenant can apply for the landlord to repay all the rent paid whilst the property was run as an HMO without a license, up to a years back payment can be applied for. Another restriction will be that while a Landlord operates without a license he will be unable to serve a Section 21 to regain the property.
Are there any companies that are helping Landlords with applying for a License?
We do not currently know of any however we will post any information as soon as we find out. We would advise that you speak to your council as some councils are providing assistance with applications at an extra charge.