Another week and another Newsround, let’s see what the team has seen in the news this week.

Warning to landlords looking to sell up

Lots of landlords are taking the decision to exit the private rented sector.

Often they will  be looking to sell their property with vacant possession – which means evicting the tenants if they fail to leave voluntarily.

However, if you do this – take care.  If you are looking to use section 21, this option may not be available for long, and so using solicitors is recommended.  So you don’t miss the boat due to unintended errors.

However, do not confuse ‘eviction experts’ with proper solicitors’ firms.

‘Eviction experts’ who charge cheaper fees are usually cheaper because they’re uninsured, have not joined a redress scheme, and their staff are untrained and unqualified.

In some cases, this may not matter – but when things go wrong, you will have little redress.  As discussed here.

Take a look at this post and this post which discuss the problems which can occur.

What is happening on pets and the Renters Rights Bill?

The bill as originally drafted included the right for landlords to require tenants to take out insurance.  However the government then removed this, mainly because they were told that suitable insurance products did not exist.

The House of Lords has now voted for an amendment to allow landlords to take an additional three weeks rent as a deposit where a landlord accepts a pet.  Which most people, apart from those in government, consider to be a sensible solution.   But be warned, this may not survive the final stages of the bill.

As commented by solicitor David Smith here:

The existing five-week cap on deposits was never designed to account for the additional risks pets can introduce. Replacing the now-abandoned insurance requirement with a modest, refundable pet deposit strikes a fair compromise, offering landlords reassurance while still supporting responsible pet ownership. Sadly, this amendment while a pragmatic recognition of the realities of property management, is not supported by the government and, like others pushed through by the Lords is extremely unlikely to survive into the final Bill.

Should you consider renting to the Council?

With the Renters Rights Bill set to make life more difficult for self-managing landlords, many Local Authorities are looking to take advantage of this.

Most Local Authorities have a desperate need for properties to rehouse tenants who have been made homeless.  Local Authorties have a statutory duty to rehouse many tenants but often do not have properties to put them in.  Many are setting up schemes to rent properties from landlords for use in rehousing the homeless.

If you do not want to sell your property you may want to consider this.  The Council will pay a guaranteed rent, and many have ‘landlord welcome’ payments for landlords when they join the scheme.  For example,

• Dorset Council will pay landlords up to £4,250 under their ‘Key4Me’ scheme.
• Enfield Council offers a Landlord Incentive Scheme with a cash incentive of up to £6,000, depending on the property and tenancy length.
• Sutton Council provides a free renting service with a cash incentive of up to £3,600.

Some Councils will help you with the cost of renovation to bring your property up to standard.  Once the property has been let you are also protected from Local Authority enforcement action and fines – if the organisation managing your property is the Local Authority itself.

So if you are tired of managing your property and worried about what the Renters Rights Bill will bring, this can be an option.

However check it out carefully before signing on the dotted line, and ideally take legal advice.  Some Local Authority schemes are great but not all landlords have had a happy experience.

Snippets

Black people in England four times as likely to face homelessness, study finds
Lords cut re-letting ban from 12 to six months in narrow vote
Council’s poll reveals deep dislike of HMOs among voters
The life swap dream – or a marketing gimmick? The Italian towns selling houses for €1
Big student accommodation provider warns of impact of RRB

See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law

Newsround will be back again next week

The post Landlord Law Newsround #395 appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

About a year or so ago, my brother bought a new property and installed solar on the roof.

“You should do the same” he told me, “it is one of the best financial investments you can make” (he is a mathematician).

So I contacted a local firm to see what they would say.

What they said was (as we had anticipated) that our roof is too small (the biggest roof has a dormer window in it, making it unusable) and faces the wrong way.

Until solar panels become more efficient, solar energy is not a good investment for us.

But, they told us, you could save money by installing batteries.

Our all-electric house

We are all electric. Gas terrifies me, and we had it taken out a few years ago. However, despite having a small house, our electricity bills are horrendous.

• My son feels the heat and is dependent on his air conditioner unit in the summer.
• I feel the cold and need a lot of heating in the winter (and in the spring and autumn too!).
• We all use our computers a lot.

All of which costs.

Reducing our bills via batteries seemed a very good idea. So in January, we had three Fox batteries installed on a wall in the back garden.

The installation

There were problems at the start. I had assumed that we would be able to sell electricity back to the grid, but after extensive correspondence, both with Octopus and the installers, I finally had to accept that this was not an option for our installation.

I was not pleased.

I also found the terminology and software baffling.  I did not really get a grip on it for a couple of months, after extensive discussions with ChatGPT.

However, we have now put all that behind us, and the system is proving itself to be a real money saver.

The Fox Battery System

Thankfully, our installer used Fox rather than Tesla batteries!

The batteries are pretty big. You can see an image of them above. One of my complaints about the installation company was that the guy who came out initially seemed to think they would fit in a cupboard in my office!

However, they are fine in the garden and are also a useful place to put potted herbs.

You control them via an app. To do this, you need to be signed up with the Octopus Agile tariff, which tells you what the price will be for every ½ hour of the day.

You then check this every day and tell the app when you want the batteries charged up. Then the charged batteries supply you at the times when the prices are high.

The variable electricity prices

It’s fascinating to see how the electricity prices vary from day to day. The only real constant is that the highest prices of the day are after 4:00 pm. So long as you can avoid buying electricity during that time, you are bound to save money.

The Octopus App shows you the electricity prices for today and (after about 5.00 pm) what the prices are going to be tomorrow. You can then set your app and tell it when to charge.

The App has a visual image of the prices and then below you can scroll down and see the prices set out in half hour chunks.

It’s not always the case that the cheapest electricity of the day is during the night. See the three images below, which are for the past 3 days.

• Day 1 is very cheap before 4.00 pm, but the cheapest time is in the afternoon.
• Day 2 is fairly constant for most of the day, apart from a dip before 4.00 pm, followed by a more expensive period for a couple of hours
• Day 3 has a small dip in prices in the early morning and a big dip in prices in the afternoon

Excitingly, sometimes prices go negative, meaning that if you are able to cram all your battery charging during that time, Octopus is paying YOU for the electricity you use.

For example, on Day 1, there were a few negative prices in the afternoon, bringing my bill for the day down to £1.09. I have only been able to manage one totally negative price day so far, which was 25 May when my bill was -£0.93p. But hopefully there will be more.

The main problem is remembering to set the app. Although if I forget and it uses the day before setting, it will always avoid the expensive period after 4.00pm.

What are our overall savings?

I have only really been using the app properly since February 2025, but our savings during the past five months, compared to last year, are £918.

The system cost £8,000, so at this rate, the system will pay for itself in just under 4.5 years.

Could this be used by landlords?

I don’t see why not. So long as there is somewhere on the property where the batteries can be installed.

Either the tenants could have control of the app. Or if the landlord includes the electricity cost with the rent, the landlord could control the app.

And finally

Despite the hiccups at the start of our battery experience, I am really glad we have them.

Not only are we saving quite a large sum on our electricity bills, it is also nice to think that in a small way we are contributing to Net Zero.

Renewable energy (eg solar and wind) fluctuates over time. Meaning that any system where electricity is being bought during a time of plenty and the stored energy used during a time when it is in short supply, will be beneficial for UK energy overall.

If everyone had battery storage, the inevitable fluctuations with renewables would not be a problem.

If you can install solar as well as batteries, you will get even more savings and can also sell electricity back to the grid.

However, it is good to know that even if, like us, solar is not practical at the moment, there is another solution.

The post Saving £900 in 5 Months: My Fox Battery Storage Review appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

Welcome to our first Newsround for July.  What do we have for you?

A new Decent Homes Standard consultation launched

There was an original consultation carried out in 2022.  However, as the decent homes standard (DHS) is now going to apply to the Private Rented Sector a new consultation has now been launched.  A good summary of this has been published by solicitor David Smith on LinkedIn.  Some of the points made by David:

• The DHS will allow local authority officers to issue penalties if a property does not meet the standard.
• The suggestion at the moment is that the new standard will be brought into force in 2025 or 2037, which is some way off.  Although, as David points out, for properties where a lot of work is needed, this is not really a long time
• Fines for housing health and safety rating system failures will likely go up from £30,000 to £40,000 with Councils able to issue immediate civil penalty notices for up to £7,000
• There is a high level of commitment on the part of the Government

All landlords should read the consultation description papers and respond to the consultation online by the deadline of 10 September 2025.

The NRLA claims that 79% of private rented homes already meet the existing DHS.  Ben Beadle, the NRLA CEO comments that although setting the standard is important, this is nothing without proper enforcement against the minority of rogue and criminal landlords.

The Renters’ Rights Bill progress

The bill is currently going through the report stage in the House of Lords.  This will end on 15 July.  As there will almost certainly not be enough time to deal with the remaining stages of the bill before the summer recess, the bill is now expected to receive the Royal Assent in September or October.  It will not come into force immediately, and it is hoped that landlords will be given at least six months to prepare.

There have been some amendments voted in against the government, but I am not going to discuss these (if you want to know more, Suzanne Smith’s very helpful Independent Landlord blog lists them).   Any amendments the government does not agree to will almost certainly be voted out in the Commons, and it is really the final version of the bill which is important.

We won’t know this until Royal Assent has been granted.  However, government amendments include:

Student lets – where a property is let to students who are in a specified educational establishment and the person acting or managing is a member of a code of practice approved under s233, Housing Act 2004, the tenancy will fall outside the Housing Act 1988 (and the scope of the Renters Rights Bill).  The codes currently approved are the codes operated by ANUK/Unipol and UUK for larger student developments. That means developments over 15 rooms.  Explained by David Smith on LinkedIn.

Date of rent increase – as discussed here, the current rules will encourage tenants to refer section 13 rent increases for review to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) as it will defer the date of the rent increase, even if the FTT do not amend the rent.  This amendment will allow the Secretary of State to change the effective date of the rent increase by regulation, so that it can come into force on the original date in the section 13 notice.  Presumably, this is so they can do this if warnings about excessive pressure on the FTT prove correct.

Council Officers’ right of entry – the bill as a whole gives Council Officers sweeping powers.  This amendment will allow them to enter suspected residential tenancies without providing prior notice to the owner if they suspect a breach of the Database rules, harassment of occupier or unlawful eviction.  Which will, for example, help them investigate “sham licences” or attempted illegal evictions.

Plug in solar panels?

A new ‘pathway’ document issued by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero includes plans to launch a safety review to unlock portable plug-in solar panels.  This would make it easier for people in rented accommodation and in apartments to install solar panels on their balconies and rooftops.  Saying

Renters and those living in apartments could also be set to experience the benefits of solar as the government sets out the steps required to make ‘plug-in’ solar available in the UK. Plug-in solar works in the same way as rooftop solar panels, except it is portable and is connected directly into plug sockets – ideal for apartments with balconies.

Plug-in solar is currently unavailable in the UK due to longstanding regulations. But in Germany, around 435,000 balconies had plug-in solar installed in 2024 alone, saving residents in apartments money on their electricity bills.

It’s worth reading the rest of the document as well, to see the government’s thinking, for example, on new housing standards and grants for property owners.

Landlords’ new AML responsibilities set out by agency

I wrote on my Landlord Law site in May about the new money laundering regulations.  At that time many were claiming that they only applied to letting agents and not to landlords.

A post on Landlord Today cites letting agents Beresfords, who are very clear that the rules DO apply to landlords, saying

The new AML rules are a turning point for the lettings industry and will affect landlords in ways many hadn’t anticipated. While the finer details are still being worked through at an industry level, landlords need to be aware of their responsibilities and ensure they’re working with reputable agents who are up to speed.

I would suggest that landlords would be unwise to assume that the regulations do not apply to them, particularly as the fines for non-compliance can be very high indeed.

Snippets

Four Landlords banned for life for serious housing offences
Huge £75,000 fine for letting two flats on Airbnb 
Housing minister vows to crack down on property management ‘wild west’
Nearly Legal blog writes about the conviction of a notorious ‘eviction specialist’
NW of England council boasts of £500,000 fines for HMO landlords
Pet deposits and clarity still needed when it comes to Renters’ Rights Bill – Propertymark

See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law

Newsround will be back again next week

The post Landlord Law Newsround #394 appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

Here are all our posts for June.

Friday 6th June

Landlord Law Newsround #390

Our first Newsround for June

Sunday 1st June

Landlord Law Blog Roundup for May

All our blog posts for May

What to do if previous tenant break in and squat?

This was a question asked by a non member via our very popular Blog Clinic

Monday 2nd June

Renters’ Rights Bill: Key Takeaways from the Civil Procedure Rule Committee Minutes

Read my thoughts on the committee’s latest meeting regarding the Renters Right Bill

Friday 6th June

Landlord Law Newsround #390

Weekly housing news updates and more

Friday 13th June

Landlord Law Newsround #391

Our weekly Newsround

Monday 16th June

Tenant making false deposit claim through debt collectors

This was was a question asked via my Blog Clinic

Thursday 19th June

Landlords: Are you Ready for the Renters Rights Bill? Seven Things to Do Now

Read my seven key steps to take before the Bill comes into force

Friday 20th June

Landlord Law Newsround #392

Newsround updates for the week

Monday 23rd June

Landlord dilemma: leaving a letting agent but still being charged

This was a question asked in my very popular Blog Clinic

Friday 27th June

Landlord Law Newsround #393

Our last Newsround for June

Monday 30 June

Government Removes Controversial Pet Insurance Clause from New Tenancy Law

Landlords lose the right to require tenants to pay for pet damage insurance.

Further Reading

Landlord Law News Blog

• A new Pet Caring Agreement and Information Form
• New info and FAQ on fire safety and fire doors

For more housing news, follow me on twitter and the Landlord Law Facebook page

Click here to get the weekly roundups sent direct to your email ‘in box’ every week – the easy way to keep up with what’s happening on the blog

The post Landlord Law Blog Roundup for June 2025 appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

I wrote a fairly detailed post in December 2025 on pets in rented properties and the proposed changes coming with the Renters’ Rights Bill.

In essence, the bill, when it becomes law, will make it more difficult for landlords to refuse pets.

Not only does the legislation provide that landlords must not refuse pets ‘unreasonably’, but tenants who feel that permission has been unreasonably refused can refer the decision to the new landlords’ redress scheme for review.

As a result, many more landlords will find that they have no alternative but to permit pets.

The problem with insurance

The government initially ‘sweetened the pill’ by saying that landlords, as a condition of granting permission, could require tenants to pay for insurance cover.

However, it now looks as if the government have changed their mind.  As in June 2025, we were told that a new amendment would remove these clauses from the bill.

Mind you, this is probably in response to the insurance industry telling the government that the type of cover they were looking for did not exist.

The Earl of Kinnoull and the House of Lords Committee stage debate

In the House of Lords Committee stage debate, The Earl of Kinnoull, a crossbench peer who has experience in insurance matters (being a director of Alpha Insurance Analysts and having share ownership in Hiscox Group) spoke on this.

He informed the House that at present, insurance is only really available for accidental damage. This is not the type of damage contemplated by the act, saying such a policy is

not for damage caused by everyday wear and tear. For example, if a dog scratches at your door every day, this is not covered, while if a pet pulls down curtains that causes damage to a wall, this would be covered.

Of course, that is a vanishingly small percentage of the loss costs likely to be caused by a pet. Most of the losses from pets will be to do with chewing or infestations …

The ‘Italian torpedo’ argument

The difficulty of trying to legislate so that a landlord can say to someone, “You can have a pet as long as you buy an insurance policy”, and there being no actual policy of insurance that exists, or no reasonable one, is that it is what is sometimes called an Italian torpedo—a legal trick whereby you started a case in a different jurisdiction to slow everything down, and the initial case never gets decided.

It would mean that the landlord could ask the tenant to find insurance that he knew did not exist and the pet would never be allowed into the property. That is not the intention of this Bill, so it would be quite wrong to let this option go forward.

It looks, therefore as if the government has accepted this argument and so removed the right for landlords to demand that tenants provide or pay for insurance.

This means that landlords will need to foot the bill for insurance themselves. As there is no longer going to be any mechanism to require tenants to insure against pet-related damage.

Which inevitably means higher rents for tenants.

Advice for landlords following on from this

Even if the tenant you accept does not have a pet – if they ask for one, it is going to be difficult for you to refuse.

So all landlords should consider doing the following:

• Arrange for pet damage for all properties, other than those where pets will definitely not be allowed (for example, where the landlord’s headlease forbids pets). This means that even if tenants bring in unauthorised pets, you should be covered.
• Ensure that your rent is sufficient to cover this cost.
• When preparing properties to rent, bear in mind that it is likely that at some stage a pet will be living there. So, for example, avoid expensive carpets and consider hard floors. Avoid any furnishings that are particularly vulnerable to pet damage and provide furniture which will be easily replaced or repaired.
• Make it known to your tenants that you are open to accepting pets, which will encourage them to let you know if they want a pet.  Rather than just bringing one in without telling you.

This way, you should be able to minimise your losses if your tenants do decide keep a pet, such as a cat or a dog, at the property.

Further advice for landlords and training webinars on the Renters Rights Bill are available on my Landlord Law service.

The post Government Removes Controversial Pet Insurance Clause from New Tenancy Law appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

Another week and our last Newsround for June.  Which starts with amendments to the Renters Rights Bill which is annoying both landlords AND tenants.

Government U-turn over pet insurance

Landlords are furious that the government has backed down on the question of pet insurance, which means that landlords will, by and large, be forced to accept pets without the tenants paying for insurance cover.

Mind you, the insurance industry has been saying for some time that the type of insurance anticipated by the bill was not something the industry were able to provide.  So I am not entirely surprised by this.

This does not help landlords, though.  NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle said:

Ministers keep talking about how the bill works for responsible landlords and yet they seem incapable of speaking to those representing them. Yet again the government simply expects responsible landlords to shoulder even greater risks without any consultation about the likely impact.

The only bright point is this report on the financial impact of pet ownership, which states that, for the most par,t pets do not cause much damage.  Going so far as to say that tenants without pets often cause more.

Renters’ Rights Bill delay

Tenants on the other hand are furious that Royal Assent for the bill is likely to be delayed until the autumn.  The FT quotes a government official as saying:

We never said we would definitely get either bill on to the statute books by the summer.

Which is a bit sneaky, as they certainly gave that impression.

But with a bill of this size and significance, it was always going to take a long time.  The government’s fault was in giving the impression that the changes would come about quickly.

Let only letting agent not liable for unlicensed HMO

The agency had been fined in respect of two rooms where the tenants had paid the agents a holding deposit and a months rent in advance.

The case hinged on whether the agents were a ‘person managing’ a house in multiple occupation (HMO) within the meaning of section 263(3) of the Housing Act 2004.

The Council argued that there should be a literal approach to the interpretation of the section.  However, Martin Rodger KC, Deputy Chamber President, when hearing the appeal, said he was not attracted to an “over-literal construction of section 263(3)”.  Going on to say that

The importance of the definition of ‘person managing’ is not that it identifies an event or a transaction but that it describes a status to which certain responsibilities are attached, including responsibility for licensing, where it is required, and responsibility for compliance with the Management Regulations. …

The fact that the purpose of the definition of person managing is to identify those who will be subject to continuing obligations, backed by criminal and civil sanctions, calls into question the intended breadth of the definition.  Did Parliament mean to attribute that status to an agent with no involvement in management? I would suggest not.

Secondly, simply as a matter of language, it would be surprising if the descriptor ‘person managing’ was intended to apply to an agent who was not engaged to manage the property and who had no power to do so.

So a good decision for all agents who act on a let-only basis.

Almost £1.5m in fines from Andy Burnham’s landlord charter

The ‘Good Landlord Scheme’ in Greater Manchester has issued some £1,47 million in fines in over two years, which will be good for Council coffers.  A statement from Burnhams office said:

The Good Landlord Charter will help to set a new standard in renting, supporting landlords to go above and beyond the minimum national standards to provide the very best rental experience for tenants. It also aims to shine a light on those landlords who don’t look after the homes and tenants that they are responsible for.

It is the first voluntary scheme of its kind across the UK, bringing together leading social housing providers and a growing number of private landlords who have committed to raising standards beyond the legal requirements.

Since 2024, Greater Manchester has led a crackdown on negligent landlords, increasing the number of enforcement fines for housing offences by 43%, totalling £1.47 million. This is being reinvested into local housing enforcement teams, helping to protect tenants against negligent landlords and poor housing.

Snippets

Awaab’s Law ‘phase 1’, electrical certificates and an investigation into claims management companies (social housing).
More than 50,000 homes sit empty amid UK housing crisis
EPC rules will force scores of tenants to move out
Media portrayal of landlords “unfair and inaccurate” – poll
Wholesale law-breaking by many landlords – solicitors’ astounding claim

See also our Quick News Updates on Landlord Law

Newsround will be back again next week

The post Landlord Law Newsround #393 appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

This is a question to the blog clinic from Matthew, who is a landlord in England.

As a landlord, just a small 1 bed property, my home, whilst overseas I decided to rent it with a well known high street agency.

The tenancy was set up as a 2 year fixed and that was completed about a month ago.

Because the agency had been extremely poor, I decided to move my property to a new agency, and I gave my original agency 3 months written notice that I would like to terminate with them at the end of the 2 year term. I got confirmation of this having been accepted by email from them.

My sitting tenant wanted to remain, and I told them the local agency I had relisted the property with, which he went and asked to start a new agreement.

To me, this seemed to be a non troublesome opportunity, I know the tenant, and for both of us it would seem to be a suitable proposition to go forward together, as he was also very unhappy with the original agency of not replying to emails and issues.

I looked through my agreement with the original agency and in the terms there is nothing indicating that I would be in any trouble, but I am not a lawyer.

Today I received an email from the original agency stating that because the tenant is still at the property I am liable to pay the full years commission, about 2000.00 in total.

I cannot believe this, because even my new agency had informed me there shouldn’t be any issues with this arrangement because I had given instruction to terminate, and they also had all of the terms and conditions as I handed them over to them, because obviously I was a little hesitant concerned of any issues arising.

Can anyone give me any advice and help?

Answer

This is a common problem when landlords switch agents. Whether the outgoing agent can continue charging fees depends on what’s in your contract — and whether those terms are fair under consumer law.

It’s unclear from your question when you intended the original agency to end. You say

I gave my original agency 3 months written notice that I would like to terminate with them at the end of the 2 year term

Which is not something they could really object to. However, later in your question, it looks as if you want to end their service now.

This is presumably why they are asking for a year’s worth of commission.

Assuming you are looking to end the agency agreement now there are two things that you need to do:

• Check carefully the terms of your agency agreement
• Consider whether you are entitled to end their agency agreement due to breach of contract

The agency agreement

This should state somewhere what the arrangements are for terminating the agreement. Normally, there will be a notice period, but some agents have clauses which state that the management must remain with them while the tenant they found for you is in occupation.

Whether such a clause is binding on you is debatable. The Unfair Terms rules (now part of the Consumer Rights Act 2015) provide that unfair terms are not binding on ‘consumers’.

From what you say, it looks as if you will be classed as a consumer. So the question is whether this clause is ‘unfair’ or not. You have not given the wording of any termination clause, so I am unable to comment. This is something you should take advice on.

Are the agents in breach of contract?

You say that you wish to terminate the contract with your original agents because you are unhappy with their service.

If you can show that there are serious breaches of their agency agreement, you may be entitled to end the contract on that basis, with no need for any notice period.

To check this, I suggest you go through the contract and list all the things which they have contracted to do for you.

Then, for each item, write down whether in your view they have complied with their obligation.

This may best be done in a two-column table with the obligations in one column and your comments alongside in the other column.

Once you have done this, again, it may be best to take legal advice on whether their breaches of contract are sufficient to justify terminating the contract immediately.

And finally

I hope this has been helpful.

Note that my Landlord Law service has a Problem Letting Agents Guide’, linked below, which will guide you through this process.

The Landlord Law Problem Letting Agents Guide

The post Landlord Dilemma: Leaving a Letting Agent but Still Being Charged? appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

Another week and another Newsround, let’s see what the team has found in the news this week.

New EPC rules impact landlords

Changes that have now come into force in the way EPC’s are calculated and the more detailed data needed for the calculations will undoubted cost landlords more as the cost of an EPC is thought to rise as they will take longer to complete.

Assessors will have to take more precise measurements and input much more specific data as the new Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP) is now in force. What is more disconcerting is that these new standards may cause a property do fall to a lower EPC rating level.

Experts such as Anna Moore of Domna a retrofit company says

The model changes how electric heating systems are scored, intended to solve the problem of people installing heat pumps and then seeing their EPC go down. The new model also lowers the ‘default assumptions’ on carbon emissions in traditionally heated homes, so many properties will see their EPC drop.

This is not good news for landlords, despite the government stating that these new rules will allow people to get a better idea on how energy efficient a property is. And as we read here activists are also putting pressure onto the government to protect tenants from rent increases directly attributed to any work their landlord has carried out to improve energy efficiency of their home.

Making Tax Digital comes with little support

From April 2026 Making Tax Digital which is a digital record keeping system approved by the government, will become mandatory for all landlords earning £50,000 annually. They will need to input quarterly income and expenses along with a final declaration at the end of January instead of the annual tax return.

But finance firm RIFT state that HMRC are not giving enough support now to those that need it and contacting them is even harder. Records show that in Q2 this year searches for Making Tax Digital surged to 43,648 per month.

A spokesman for RIFT said

HMRC simply isn’t equipped to facilitate the surge in demand for its guidance and advice ahead of such a notable change and it’s clear that many are having to seek their own answers via the internet.

Renters’ Rights Bill could have a detrimental impact for some tenants

With the Renters Rights Bill now imminent letting agent, Leaders Roman Group have said that the new bills restriction of only taking one month’s rent in advance could really impact those tenants who are vulnerable along with overseas people or those who are self employed.  Often having the ability to pay several months’ rent in advance is a practical solution that can increase the tenant’s prospects when applying for a property.

Stats show that 57% of tenants have difficulties trying to secure a rental property and 41% of landlords are willing to accept tenants who otherwise may not pass the referencing checks if they can pay several months’ rent in advance. Allison Thompson of the letting agent said

Capping advance rent could have the opposite effect to what’s intended, making the system less fair for those who already face barriers. Negotiated advance payments, used with safeguards, are a bridge into housing, not a loophole.

Without this option, some tenants will be at a disadvantage.

Council hails licensing scheme a success one year on

Peterborough Council launched their selective licensing scheme last March and are crediting that with significant improvements to their private rental sector properties. The scheme has over 40% of private rented properties and each licensed property has two inspections during the five year license period.

The council has inspected over 1500 properties in the past year and issued more than 6,500 safety hazards with 49% of the properties having a hazard one (most serious).

Each landlord is given a report after each inspection detailing any hazards identified and what is required to rectify them. They also issue automated reminders for gas certificates and EPC’s. This, they claim, has lead to a high proportion of safety improvements in thousands of homes.

Following the success of this scheme, they are now considering a city wide scheme for smaller HMO’s.

Snippets

LEGAL update: Consumer protection laws – what landlords need to know
Bolton brings in harsher planning rules after HMO increase ‘concerns’
Jailed! Con-artist fake landlord behind £200,000 rent swindle
Big seaside city reveals radical plans to restrict holiday lets
Named and shamed – landlords on HMRC Deliberate Tax Defaulter list
‘Grenfell was caused by corporate greed’: report calls for far stronger penalties over unsafe cladding

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The post Landlord Law Newsround #392 appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

The date of implementation of the Renters Rights Bill is getting closer, and many landlords are wondering what they should do to prepare for this.

Here are seven critical steps you should be taking now:

1. Check your tenancy/occupation type

Most of the bill will only affect English assured and assured shorthold tenancies under the Housing Act 1988. The vast majority of tenancies in England will be assured shorthold tenancies.  But is YOUR property occupied under an AST?

You need to check this and make sure if there is any doubt. Our Tenancy Trail can help you do this.

If your tenancy is not an AST, though, this will not let you off the hook entirely.  You will probably still need to sign up to the Landlord Redress Scheme and register on the Landlord Database.

2. Check your tenancy agreement

At the moment, many landlords will get tenants to sign a new tenancy agreement at ‘renewal’. If tenants are unwilling to do this, the threat of a Section 21 eviction (even if not specifically mentioned) will normally encourage them to sign.  Even if they don’t want to.

However, once the new act is in force, all tenancies will convert to periodic assured tenancies.  So there will be no ‘renewals’. Plus, section 21 is to be abolished. It may therefore be difficult to get tenants to sign a new agreement if they do not want to.  As is the case now with protected tenancies under the Rent Act 1977.

I would suggest, therefore, that you review the terms of your tenancy agreement to see if it covers everything necessary. If not, try to get a new tenancy agreement signed up now.

3. Review the rent

Although the general view of landlords is that they are a greedy lot racking up the rent mercilessly whenever they can, in fact, many landlords fail to increase the rent for years at a time.

They then find that they are failing to make a profit or even enough to cover their outgoings, and make a fairly large rent increase. This then puts their tenants into difficulties and reinforces the ‘greedy landlord’ theme.

This is why our advice for all landlords is to increase the rent little and often, to keep up with inflation.

This is going to become more important once the Renters’ Rights Bill becomes law.  As you will only be able to increase rent via the statutory notice procedure.  Which can only be used a year.

It is a good idea, therefore, for all landlords to review their rent now.  If it is too low, bring it up to the market rent. It will be easier for you to increase the rent now, before the new act comes into force.

Going forward, once all rent increases are via the statutory notice procedure, challenges to landlords’ proposed new rents will be on the basis of the ‘market rent’.

It will be important, therefore, that landlords collectively ensure that rents keep up with inflation.  Otherwise, this may result in the First Tier Tribunal awarding lower rents to landlords when rent increases are challenged.

4. Check the condition of your property

There is currently a lot of legislation regarding the condition of rental properties. The two most important being

• Section 11 onwards of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 on disrepair, and
• The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018

Together with the Housing Health and Safety Rating System inspection process, which is set out in the Housing Act 2004.

However, at the moment, unless your property is an HMO and subject to the HMO Management Regulations, a Local Authority cannot immediately penalise you for the poor condition of your property.  Not until after they have carried out an HHSRS inspection and ordered you to carry out work found necessary by the inspection.  It is only if you fail to comply that they can take enforcement action.

As you may have heard, the Renters Rights Bill will be setting a new decent homes standard. What is less well known is that landlords will be obliged to comply with at all times. As is the case now with the HMO Management Regulations.  This means that if Local Authority inspectors turn up at your property and find it is not compliant with the standard, they can immediately start penalising you as well as ordering you to fix whatever the issue is.

So once this part of the act is in force, to protect your position, you will need to ensure that your properties are compliant at all times.  Critically, you must also be able to PROVE compliance.  For example, to protect your position if tenants maliciously damage the property and then report you to the Council.  Remember, if you can’t prove something, evidentially it did not happen.

The decent homes standard will not come into force for some time. So you should take advantage of this period to check your properties carefully and do any necessary works to ensure that they are (if necessary) brought up to standard.

Note that landlords will also need to ensure that their property meets the minimum energy efficiency standard of EPC band C before the anticipated compliance deadline of 2028.

5. Set up a program of regular inspections

In view of the increased regulations coming for landlords, it is important that you are kept aware of the condition of your properties. This can only be done by setting up a regular inspection program.

Reasons why this is critically important include:

• Keeping you informed of the occupiers of the property so you can guard against unauthorised HMOs being created or occupation limits in HMO licenses being exceeded. Both of which can make you vulnerable to penalties
• Allowing you to check that you are fulfilling your legal obligations – such as maintaining the condition of the property to a proper standard.
• Allowing you to check that the tenants are using the property properly and have not carried out any unauthorised alterations or changes or damaged the property in any way
• Making sure that nothing is being done to adversely affect your insurance. Be aware that increasingly insurance companies are requiring regular property inspections as a condition of insurance cover.  Check to see if this is the situation with your insurance.  (NB we have a free insurance mini course here).

Note that if you are unfamiliar with conducting property inspections, our Property Inspection Kit (available free of charge to all Landlord Law members) will serve as your detailed guide.  Our Audit Kit is also a useful guide to help you do an annual check of your properties to make sure you are compliant with all rules.  Both of these are available to all Landlord Law members as part of their membership entitlement.

6. Set up a record system

It is increasingly important that landlords not only comply with regulations but are able to PROVE that they are compliant.

This means not only keeping all relevant documents – such as tenancy agreements, gas safety and other similar certificates, receipts for work done and purchases made and the like, but also keeping records of things done. For example:

• All telephone calls
• All meetings
• All reviews of the property, recording the things considered and why you took the decision you did

It does not matter whether the records are physical and kept in a box or filing cabinet, or are online and kept on Dropbox or Google docs. The main thing is that you have them and know how to access them easily.

They will be essential if you need to prove compliance to the Local Authority or need to evict your tenant.

Further guidance is available to Landlord Law members on this important topic, plus we have handy telephone attendance notes and our diary sheet (for recording meetings) which you can use for your record keeping.

7. Ensure that you are kept up to date with legal developments

At the time of writing, the final form of the Renters Rights Bill is not known. We know mostly what it will contain, but there could be last minute amendments.

As a landlord, is it really important that you are aware of the new legislation and what it will mean for you.

The following will help keep you up to date:

• This Landlord Law Blog (sign up to get updates here)
• The Landlord Law Weekly Bulletin
• The Nearly Legal Blog
• The Independent Landlord website and newsletter
• The LandlordZone News site
• Property Industry Eye
• Landlord Today
• Property 118

Magazines include Property Investor News and Your Property Network.

My Landlord Law membership site for landlords (and letting agents!) has extensive guidance, and we will be updating all our online information and landlord documentation in time for when the bill comes into force.

And finally

The changes in regulations are coming. The bill is expected to receive the Royal Assent some time in 2025 and will come into force a few months later.

Many landlords with good tenants whose properties are in good condition will not need to worry about this too much. However, even if you are sure that your property is compliant, you should follow the guidance above and keep detailed records.

See my other posts on the Renters Rights Bill here.

The post Landlords: Are You Ready for the Renters Rights Bill? Seven Things to Do Now appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.

This is a question to the blog clinic from Richard (not his real name), who is a landlord in England.

I am selling my flat. The sale fell through. I got a tenant for 6 months who agreed to rent it on an AST for 6 months without a deposit. He paid rent and was paid up for 3 months. After making the last 3rd payment, he decided to leave suddenly and return to Albania.

He is now claiming deposit liability twice the 3 months and wants 6 months’ rent in compensation.

He has realised he didn’t pay a deposit, so none was registered, but has engaged a vicious debt collection agency to hound me with demands. Do I have to pay?

Answer

If the tenant did not pay a deposit, then no, you should not pay.

It may be difficult to get the debt collectors off your case though. I assume that you have already written to them, telling them that no deposit was paid by the tenant.

If they continue to be difficult, then write to them saying that if they do not leave you alone, you will be instructing solicitors to apply for an injunction and compensation under the Protection from Harassment Act, plus an order that they pay your legal costs.

If they continue, then instruct solicitors to write to them.

Have any readers had this problem?

The post Tenant making false deposit claim through debt collectors appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog.