Landlord Regulations Up By A Third

The number of laws creating an obligation on private landlords has increased by 32 per cent since 2010. According to analysis by the RLA, the total number of regulations affecting landlords has increased to 156, up from 118 when the Conservative-led coalition government came to power.  The RLA is warning the increase in legislation has not led to an improvement in enforcement action against criminal landlords and many councils are failing to properly use the powers they already have. Previous research by the RLA has found that in 2017/18, two thirds of councils had not commenced any prosecutions against private landlords. Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/landlord-regulations-up-by-a-third/

MHCLG To Tighten Health And Safety Standards For Rental Sector

Renters get greater protection under plans pitched by MHCLG to overhaul health and safety standards for rental accommodation – updating a system hasn’t been updated in over 12 years. Housing Minister Heather Wheeler said the reviews allowed for a revisit of current health and safety ratings and carbon monoxide alarms to ensure that both are fit for purpose and meeting the needs of tenants. “By looking again at these rules, we can make sure that they are working as they should to keep people safe and give them peace of mind in their homes,” she said. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/mhclg-to-tighten-health-and-safety-standards-for-rental-sector/

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish regulations on local Tenancy Strategies in relation to the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

Dominic Raab: [Holding answer 25 June 2018]: The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduced changes to local authority tenancies by making it mandatory for most new council tenancies to be for a fixed term. Regulations and statutory guidance are necessary to implement the fixed term tenancy provisions in the Housing and Planning Act and the next steps will be set out in due course.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-06-20/155938

Mandatory HMO Licensing Extension To Commence In October

Regulations laid in Parliament confirm that the long-awaited extension of Mandatory HMO Licensing will come into force from 1st October 2018. The regulations replace the previous prescribed description of HMO, removing the three-storey rule and bringing purpose built flats where there are up to two flats in the block into scope of mandatory licensing. From 1st October, properties that meet all of the following criteria will be subject to mandatory licensing:

·         is occupied by five or more persons;

·         is occupied by persons living in two or more separate households; and

meets—

·         the standard test under section 254(2) of the Act;

·         the self-contained flat test under section 254(3) of the Act

·         the converted building test under section 254(4) of the Act.

Read more on the NLA website.

https://www.landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mandatory-hmo-licensing-extension-commence-in-october

Government Confirms Extension Of Mandatory HMO Licensing

The Government has announced that it will be seeking Parliament’s approval on regulations to

extend the scope of mandatory HMO licensing:

·         It will apply where certain HMOs are occupied by five persons or more in two or more households

·         This includes any HMO where such householders lack or share basic amenities such as a toilet, personal washing or cooking facilities.

·         It also applies to purpose built flats where there are up to two flats in the block and one or both are occupied as an HMO.

·         The new rules will be introduced in two phases. Most likely, the regulations will come into force in April 2018.

Read more on the NLA website.

Tenants Let Down By Lack Of Letting Fee Enforcement

The government needs to do more to better enforce existing regulations designed to improve transparency around letting agent fees before looking to ban them outright. That’s the call being made by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) as MPs debate plans to ban fees. Figures published earlier this year by the National Approved Letting Scheme found that after two years of the law coming into effect, 93% of councils had failed to issue a single financial penalty to a letting agent for breaching the law. Only three penalty notices had been served across England for failure to display all relevant landlord and tenant fees. Read more on the RLA website.

Data Protection Guide For Social Housing Landlords

HouseMark has partnered with Anthony Collins Solicitors to jointly publish a comprehensive guide to data protection and privacy, designed specifically for the sector. The guide will support landlords to:

–          Achieve legal and regulatory compliance

–          Examine the ethical issues surrounding data privacy

–          Realise the business benefits to be gained by building trust with tenants through the adoption of a fair and transparent approach to the collection and use of their data. The guide will assist tenants by providing clear information about their rights in relation to the protection of their privacy. Download a copy from HouseMark.

Social Rented Housing: Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Owen Smith:  To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects to announce what changes are required to comply with the terms of the Supreme Court ruling of November 2016 on the under-occupancy penalty.

Caroline Nokes: The Department is taking action to make changes to the regulations in order to comply with the terms of the judgment. The Social Security Advisory Committee and Local Authority Associations are being consulted about the changes in the usual way. The Department will also be issuing guidance to Local Authorities ready for when the changes are in place.

Minister Casts Doubt Over Higher Value Levy Date

Housing minister Gavin Barwell has admitted councils need “plenty of time” to prepare for the higher value asset levy, raisings doubt over whether it will be introduced from April next year as expected. The government was widely expected to implement the policy from April next year but detailed regulations required to implement the measure have not been published. A CLG civil servant also admitted that the Right to Buy extension has been delayed by the Brexit referendum vote. Speaking at a CLG committee session, Mr Barwell said the government has not made any decisions about when councils will be expected to make the payment but details of the “controversial policy” would require “quite a notice period” before being introduced. Read more on Inside Housing.

Universal Credit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Stephen Timms:  To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the level of work allowance for universal credit will be for people (a) with and (b) without a housing element included in their universal credit in each of the next five years.

Damian Hinds: The work allowance rates are set out in regulations, and are £192 for those with housing costs and £397 for those without.

Ministers Consider Pay To Stay Exemption

The CLG will consider exempting council tenants from Pay to Stay in areas where social rents and market rents are similar. Civil servants from CLG have drawn up draft regulations for ministers which include an exemption in areas where the difference between market rent and social rent is very small. Under the latest regulations, councils would compare the market and social rents in the area, deduct an administrative cost per tenant which is likely to be set by the government, and if the difference between the rents is small then a council could receive an exemption. Read more on Inside Housing.

Next Battle Is Housing Regulations

Campaigners must continue their battle by tackling new regulations, a Labour peer has urged. Ahead of a crucial stage of the Housing and Planning Bill, a backbench Labour member of the House of Lords said shaping the regulations on critical issues such as Right to Buy will be the final stage of the battle for social housing. The regulations are being drafted separately from the controversial legislation by a team of CLG civil servants and will not come under parliamentary scrutiny. Baroness Ruth Lister gave a briefing to housing campaigners and called on them to continue their campaign after the legislation is passed to focus on the rules that will affect local authorities and housing associations. Read more on 24dash.

High-Income Tenants Exempt From Rent Cut

The 1% annual rent cut will not apply to households with household income of £60,000 or more, the government has said. The exemption was made in secondary legislation to the Welfare Reform and Work Act, which forces housing associations and councils to reduce their rents by 1% every year for four years. The Social Housing Rents (Exceptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations state that the rent reduction will not apply to households meeting the income qualification criterion, which is £60,000. Between 11,000 and 21,000 households living in social housing earn more than £60,000, according to government documents produced in 2013. Download the Regulations from the GovUK website.

Bedroom Tax: The Effect of the Pre-1996 Claim ‘Exemption’.

The DWP has confirmed that 4(1)(a) of Schedule 3 of the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2006 has the effect that any HB claimant who has been claiming continuously since before 1 January 1996, for the same property, should have their HB rate calculated without the ‘Spare room subsidy’ provisions. In effect these claimants are exempt from the bedroom tax under the current regulations and have been since their introduction in April 2013. So, for the full list of who is exempt, read more on the Nearly Legal website.

The Household Benefit Cap - Commons Library Standard Note

The Housing Benefit (Benefit Cap) Regulations 2012 introduced the cap on household benefits from 15 April 2013 in the London boroughs of Croydon, Enfield, Haringey and Bromley. National roll-out was managed over a 10 week period split into two tranches:

• Tranche 1 included all local authorities with 275 affected households or fewer - capping commenced in these areas on 15 July 2013;

• Tranche 2 included all local authorities with 276 or more households to be capped and commenced from the week of 12 August 2013.

The Universal Credit Regulations 2013 provide for an overall benefit cap within Universal Credit (UC). UC is being phased in between October 2013 and 2017.  The note explains how the cap operates and summarises reactions to it, including attempts to amend the cap as the Welfare Reform Act progressed through the House of Lords. Download a copy of the note from the Parliament website.

Deregulation Bill

As announced in the Queen’s Speech on 8 May, the Deregulation Bill would be part of the Government’s agenda to reduce the burden of excessive or unnecessary regulation where primary legislation is required. The Bill will be published in draft for pre-legislative scrutiny. Many other regulations

are being scrapped and reformed either administratively or via secondary legislation.  The Deregulation Bill is of particular interest to housing providers in that it reduces the qualifying period for Right to Buy and Right to Acquire from five years to three years.  The full version of the Queen’s Speech is available at the Parliament website.

Universal Credit Regulations

The DWP has issued the final Universal Credit Regulations, due to come into force on 29 April 2013.  Download a copy by clicking on the logo below.

Peers Refuse to Sanction Criticism of Universal Credit

Peers have rejected a motion criticising universal credit as the Lords voted through regulations to introduce the flagship welfare reform policy.  A ‘motion of regret’ on the policy was defeated by 239 votes to 169 as the House of Lords approved the regulations last week. Labour’s Baroness Sherlock proposed the motion of regret saying that the universal credit regulations would ‘not achieve their aim of making work pay for all’. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housing Benefit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Sir Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will amend regulations on benefit levels for under-occupancy to allow people of non-retirement age with chronic life-threatening conditions to be considered on the same terms as those of retirement age in respect of their continued occupation of rented property.

Steve Webb: We considered a number of exemptions during formulation of the under-occupation policy but concluded that specific exemptions for different groups can be an inefficient and a complex way of targeting resources. We believe that Discretionary Housing Payments offer a better solution as local decision makers are best placed to make decisions on individual circumstances.  As part of the under-occupation measure we are adding £30 million a year to the Discretionary Housing Payment fund from April, £25 million of which is aimed at supporting disabled claimants living in adapted properties.

Time to Make a Noise about Housing Attacks

In simpler times, the rent was just the rent. The breakdown of council rents in recent years, to include many itemised service charges, was never for our benefit as tenants. Today, housing experts say that it is "uncertain" whether the universal credit, being phased in from October 2013, will cover tenant service charges, as current housing benefit does. Draft regulations published in June 2012 look set to exclude 13 different types of service charge from benefit coverage. The impact on tenants would be severe, and for some, devastating.  We estimate that the changes would cut the disposable income of single unemployed tenants by one-third, from £64.87 to £42.97 per week. That's on top of the Tories' other benefit changes - the council tax shortfall, the "bedroom tax" and so on. Many councils and housing associations have been considering the withdrawal of some services, because tenants would be unable or unwilling to pay high service charges from their benefit income.  Read more on the Morning Star website.