Lime
Legal's General Editor: Jan Luba QC |
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7th October 2015 Update |
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POLICY ISSUES IN HOUSING LAW
New protections for private sector tenants
New UK Government guidance has been published describing the measures in
the Deregulation Act 2015 to tackle retaliatory eviction which came into
force on 1 October 2015. For a copy of the guidance,
click here The free
How to rent: the checklist for renting in England has been updated to
reflect the changes. For a copy,
click here
Ending private sector tenancies
On 30 September 2015, the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed
Requirements (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 introduced a new
prescribed form of Section 21 Notice for use under the Housing Act 1988.
For the regulations,
click here For
the explanatory memorandum giving reasons for the last-minute correction
of the form of notice,
click here For the official webpage containing the new
notice,
click here For a
legal commentary,
click here
Council and housing association rent reductions
On 28 September 2015, the UK Government published an impact assessment of
its proposed reductions to, and further restrictions of, social housing
rents in England. For the document,
click here The
proposals are at present contained in the
Welfare Reform & Work Bill (see
below) which will continue its passage through Parliament when it resumes
on 12 October 2015 after the ‘conference-season’ recess.
Hoarding in social housing
The Chartered Institute of Housing has published a new guide for social
landlords on how to tackle hoarding by tenants of social housing. For a
copy,
click here
Safety in private rented housing
From 1 October 2015, landlords have been required by law to install smoke
and carbon monoxide alarms in their rented properties. In its announcement
accompanying the introduction of the new provisions, the UK Government
estimated that this could help prevent more than 25 deaths and nearly 700
injuries a year. For the announcement,
click here
Landlords who fail to install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms will face
civil penalties of up to £5,000.
Local fire and rescue authorities have purchased a limited number of
alarms for free distribution to landlords. For further details,
click here
For a legal commentary on the new provisions,
click here For the House of Commons Library briefing on
the new obligations,
click here
Homelessness in England
The latest quarterly official statistics on homelessness applications to
local authorities in England have been published. For the full figures,
click here For the latest information briefing from the
House of Commons Library on the key homelessness indicators for England,
click here
Tackling rogue landlords
The Local Government Association (LGA) has called for stronger sentencing
guidelines for magistrates and a wider range of penalties so that the
small minority of rogue landlords who exploit their tenants are properly
held to account for renting out sub-standard accommodation. For details of
the LGA’s position
click here A new local Rogue Landlord project is bringing
together council officers, the local fire service, the CAB and the law
centre to tackle poor housing in Luton. For more details,
click here
Housing benefit
The HB Direct newsletter
provides information on policy changes, good practice and initiatives that
affect Housing Benefit. On 2 October 2015, the DWP released the October
issue of HB Direct. For a copy,
click here
New Property Ombudsman Codes
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) has issued new Codes of Practice which came
into effect from 1 October 2015. They have been approved by the Chartered
Trading Standards Institute. The Codes of Practice are to be used by TPO
members when a property is located in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
For the TPO Code of Practice for Residential Letting Agents,
click here For the
TPO Code of Practice for Residential Estate Agents,
click here
Accommodation for Care Leavers
A new step-by-step framework document has just been published explaining
how care leavers can best be helped with getting accommodation. For a
copy,
click here
Street Homelessness
On 2 October 2015, Homeless Link sent an open letter to local authorities
inviting them to enhance their emergency support for people who sleep
rough this winter. For the text of the letter,
click here
Private sector tenancies in England
On 1 October 2015, the organisation Generation Rent launched a new rights
guide for private sector tenants. For more details about
Know your rights as a UK tenant,
click here
Private sector tenancies in Wales
The provisions of sections 35 and 36 of the
Small Business, Enterprise and
Employment Act 2015 have been brought into force in Wales for
tenancies entered into after 1 October 2015. The carrying on of a home
business will no longer entitle domestic tenants to renew tenancy
agreements as business tenancies. For the Act,
click here For the commencement order in Wales,
click here
Starter homes for young buyers
The UK Government’s forthcoming
Housing Bill (see below) is expected to contain proposals to
facilitate and encourage the building of starter homes for young first
time buyers. For a copy of the new Commons Library Briefing on the topic,
click here
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HOUSING LAWS IN THE PIPELINE
Welfare Reform and Work Bill
This UK Government Bill was published on 9 July 2015. It makes provision
about: (1) the benefit cap; (2) social security and tax credits; (3) loans
for mortgage interest; and (4) social housing rents. It had its Second
Reading in the House of Commons on 20 July 2015 and is being considered in
detail by a public bill committee during September and October. For the
Bill,
click here For the explanatory notes,
click here To follow the progress of the Bill,
click here. For the documents relating to the Bill
(including several impact assessments),
click here The Committee which will review the Bill has
issued a call for written evidence. For the details,
click here
For the official records of the
Committee debates to date,
click here For the latest CPAG update on the Bill,
click here For the Memorandum to the Joint Committee on
Human Rights from the UK Government about the Bill,
click here
Immigration Bill
This UK Government Bill was published on 17 September 2015. Clauses 12-15
address residential tenancies.
They would create four new offences to target those landlords and agents
who deliberately and repeatedly fail to comply with the right-to-rent
scheme by letting to tenants subject to immigration restrictions or fail
to evict tenants who they know or have reasonable cause to believe are
disqualified from renting as a result of their immigration status. For a
copy of the Bill,
click here For
the Explanatory Notes on Clauses,
click here
For the official Impact Assessment,
click here For a housing lawyer’s commentary,
click here The Commons Second Reading is scheduled for 13
October 2015. For the ILPA Information sheet on the Bill,
click here For the Migrant Rights Network’s Briefing on
the Bill,
click here To follow the progress of the Bill,
click here
Housing Bill
This UK Government Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech on 28 May 2015
but has yet to be published. For the official outline of its content,
click here The official
briefing about the Queen’s Speech contains the details at pages 27-29. For
that,
click here For a commentary on
the likely content of the Bill,
click here
On 4 July 2015 the Chancellor and
the Prime Minister released a joint statement indicating that their plans,
“which will form part of the Housing Bill to be introduced this autumn,
include steps to build discounted homes for first time buyers on all
reasonable sized developments, unlock public land for hundreds of
thousands of new homes and back small builders with planning changes”
(emphasis added). For the statement,
click here
Renting Homes (Wales) Bill
Housing (Amendment) Bill
Houses in Multiple Occupation Bill
This is a Bill introduced in the Assembly on 7 September 2015 by the
Northern Ireland Executive. It
would make provision for and in connection with the licensing of houses in
multiple occupation In Northern Ireland. For a copy of the Bill,
click here For the explanatory memorandum,
click here
To follow the progress of the Bill,
click here
Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill This is a Private Members Bill introduced by Karen Buck MP. It would amend the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to require that residential rented accommodation is provided and maintained in a state of fitness for human habitation. It had a First Reading on 24 June 2015 and its Second Reading is scheduled for 16 October 2015. For details on the progress of the Bill, click here For a commentary on its content, click here
Local Government Finance (Tenure
Information) Bill
This is a Private Members Bill introduced by Dame Angela Watkinson MP. It
would amend the Local Government Finance Act 1992 to make provision for
collecting information about tenure and the details of private landlords.
It had a First Reading on 24 June 2015 and its Second Reading is scheduled
for 30 October 2015. For details on the progress of the Bill,
click here
Crown Tenancies Bill |
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NEW HOUSING CASES
Lazar v Hungary
1
October 2015
The
applicants brought a claim for damages against a housing cooperative and
two individuals on 15 October 2002. Although the claim initially
succeeded, it was finally dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 30 November
2010, over eight years later. The European Court of Human Rights held that
the delay amounted to a breach of the right to a fair trial in Article 6
and awarded the applicants jointly 3,200 euros in respect of non-pecuniary
damage and 1,000 euros costs. For the judgment,
click here
Warwick District Council v Rajvir Rai and Bhajno Rai
26
September 2015
The
defendants were private landlords of a four-storey HMO let as four
bedsits. Council officers found:(1) no working fire alarms; (2) inadequate
means of escape from fire; (3) many of the doors to the rooms were not
fire doors; (4) only one smoke detector – which was not operational; (5)
the door to the kitchen had been removed; and (6) no current Gas Safety
Certificate. The defendants admitted a series of offences in relation to
the property. At
Nuneaton Justice Centre, they
were fined £25,000 with £2,472.08 in costs and victim surcharges. For
details of the prosecution,
click here
London Fire Authority v Muhammad Ashraf
25
September 2015
Following a fatal fire at a property let by the defendant landlord, fire
officers found a number of serious fire safety breaches including: (1) the
front door was the only dedicated fire exit and was fitted with a mortice
lock which, without use of a key, prevented
it from being used in case of an emergency; (2) no fire detectors
or smoke alarms; (3) no firefighting equipment; (4) no proper fire risk
assessment in place for the property; and (5) none of the doors provided
30 minutes fire resistance in the event of a fire. At Snaresbrook Crown
Court, the defendant pleaded guilty to four offences under the Regulatory
Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. He was sentenced to six months’
imprisonment. The sentence was suspended and he was ordered to carry out
200 hours of community service and pay £22,684 in prosecution costs. For
details of the prosecution,
click here
Peterborough Council v Nazia Sultana and Parvaiz Akhtar
24
September 2015
The
defendants were the landlords of a property found to be very badly
insulated, with defective windows and entrance door, and with an
inadequate central heating system. There were also exposed electrical
wiring and poor bathroom facilities. At Peterborough Magistrates’ Court,
they were found guilty of failing to comply with two improvement notices
which had required remedial works. Each was fined £4,500 for the two
offences with costs of £750: a total of £9,750. For details of the
prosecution,
click here
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service v Ishaq Hussein
24
September 2015
The
defendant was a landlord of a house converted into flats. An inspection
identified several contraventions of the fire safety regulations,
including no firefighting equipment, no emergency lighting, a fire alarm
that had been inoperative for more than two years and no records of a fire
risk assessment. He pleaded guilty to 12 charges brought under the
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order and was committed to Reading Crown
Court for sentence. The sentencing judge said that the appropriate
sentence was six months imprisonment on each offence, to run concurrently
but this was reduced to four months
imprisonment in light of the early guilty pleas. For details of the
prosecution,
click here
Carmarthenshire County Council v X
23
September 2015
The
defendant was a council tenant. After repeated but failed attempts to
service his gas boiler, the council applied for an entry warrant under the
Housing Act 2004. Llanelli Magistrates’ Court granted the warrant to
enable the council to force entry into the property in order to allow gas
contractors to check and service the boiler. Although forced entry was
not, in the event, required on execution of the warrant, the tenant is now
liable for the costs of the application. For more details,
click here
CH/4631/2014
22
September 2015
A social
housing tenant occupied a property which her landlord had designated as
having three bedrooms. Her housing benefit was reduced on the basis that
she had one ‘spare bedroom’. On appeal, the first-tier tribunal decided
that the room in question was, by reason of its size and configuration,
not properly capable of being described as available for use as a bedroom
and it allowed an appeal. The council brought a second appeal. That was
dismissed by the Upper Tribunal as there was no arguable error in the
first appeal decision. For a commentary on the case (including a copy of
the judgment),
click here
Mann v Shelfside Holdings Ltd
15
September 2015
A tenant
took a tenancy of a farm. The tenancy was binding as between him and his
immediate landlord. At a time when the immediate landlord no longer had
any proprietary interest in the land, the freeholder re-took possession.
The eviction had not been unlawful. The High Court judgment contains a
useful restatement of the rule that possession is granted in accordance
with strict property rights. The tenant’s remedy (if any) lay against his
own landlord. The freeholder had not, on the facts, been prevented by any
earlier representation from recovering possession. For the judgment,
click here
Complaint against London Borough of Lambeth
14
September 2015
In 2006,
the complainant exercised the right to buy her council flat. It took until
November 2014 for her to complete the purchase. She had complained to the
Local Government Ombudsman about the council’s handling of the sale. The
council only completed the sale shortly after she complained to the
ombudsman for a fifth time. The LGO found the council at fault because it
had again not progressed the sale for 13 months, and, despite assurances
to the contrary, had not paid the £500 remedy it had agreed in 2013 on an
earlier complaint. The LGO investigation also found the council at fault
for its poor communication about the lack of progress of the sale. The
council agreed to apologise and pay another £500 to acknowledge the
uncertainty, frustration, distress and inconvenience caused. For the
investigation report,
click here
Peterborough Council v Giuseppe Liguori
9
September 2015
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HOUSING LAW CONSULTATIONS
New measures on Local Courts for Housing Cases
The Ministry of Justice is consulting on the closure of 91 courts and
tribunals across England and Wales, and the integration or merger of 31
more. This represents a reduction in capacity by
139 county court rooms (17% of all county court rooms) and 63 tribunal
rooms (13% of all tribunal rooms). For the consultation documents,
click here The consultation closes on
8 October 2015. The Law Society
has produced a series of
campaigner packs to help respondents raise the issue with MPs and AMs. For
details,
click here
Taxation of Private Renting
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NEW HOUSING LAW ARTICLES & PUBLICATIONS
Recent Developments in Housing Law
Jan Luba QC & Nic Madge
[2015] October issue of Legal Action magazine. Available in print
and on-line for Legal Action subscribers. To read the
article on-line,
click here
For back-issues of this series
of articles,
click here
Right to buy throws petrol on an already blazing housing crisis
Dawn Foster [2015] Guardian Housing
Network 2 October. To read the article,
click here
Social landlords must be wondering how much longer they can survive
Jane Dudman [2015] Guardian Housing
Network 24 September. To read the article,
click here
Is there a risk that housing associations could become ‘public bodies’ and
be ‘privatised’?
John Perry [2015] CIH Blog 30
September. To read the article,
click here
Imposing conditions on selective licences Matthew Paul [2015]
Local Government Lawyer 24 September. To read the article,
click here
Above average fines for Peterborough landlords Stuart Spear
[2015] Environmental Health News
Blog 30 September. To read the article,
click here
London’s homelessness crisis is spilling into the home counties
Lizzie Presser
[2015] Guardian 30
September. To read the article,
click here
Government must act now to stop rise in homelessness
Jon Sparkes [2015] The Politics Blog
28 September. To read the article,
click here
Baby who was forced to sleep in car with homeless parents in Bournemouth
dies
Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith [2015]
The Independent 27 September. To read the article,
click here
Homeless families forced to move from their local area doubles in a year
Claire Miller and Julia Rampen [2015] The Mirror Group 2 October. To
read the article,
click here
Homelessness can and must be prevented Kevin Garvey [2015]
Shelter Policy Blog 28 September. To read the article,
click here
A gas safety reminder
Chris Green [2015] Inside Housing
28 September.
To read the article,
click here
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THE HOUSING LAW DIARY 8 October 2015 30 October 2015 6 November 2015 13 November 2015
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RECRUITMENT Tower Hamlets Law
Centre Housing Law
Solicitor/Experienced Caseworker (full time) Tower Hamlets Law Centre
is seeking to appoint a full time Housing Law Solicitor or Experienced
Caseworker.
We have recently had our
funding from Tower Hamlets Council agreed to 2018, we also have a Legal Aid
Agency Contract that covers legal help and certificated cases and
representation at court as part of the duty solicitor scheme.
The post holder will take over an existing case load and must have at
least one year experience of advising and assisting in all areas of housing
law. If you are interested in
the post, please send an email to
recruitment2015@thlc.co.uk
to request an application pack. Tower Hamlets Law Centre
is committed to equal opportunities; we welcome applications from all
sections of the community. Closing date
for applications is Monday 12th October 2015 and
interviews are scheduled for Friday 16th October 2015. Salary:
£25,000 to
£29,500 (negotiable) Location:
Tower Hamlets
Address:
Unit 1 St Anne’s Street 2, off 789 Commercial Road, London E14 7HG.
Tenancy Sustainment Officer
Full time, permanent
Salary: £29,727 - £31,986
Are you passionate about helping people facing homelessness?
Can you work in a fast-paced environment?
The Housing Options Service at Barnet Homes is at the frontline of
homelessness in Barnet, providing housing and homelessness advice in one of
the most popular places to live in London.
We have restructured to meet the challenges of increasing housing
demand and reduced supply and are now looking for highly motivated and
enthusiastic people to join our Homeless Prevention team.
TheThe Tenancy Sustainment Officer will have a proven track record of
preventing homeless by working with landlords to keep tenants in their
homes. They will provide specialised casework and will need a strong working
knowledge of Landlord and Tenant Law, court procedures, welfare benefits and
the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 in order to be successful in the role.
Closing date:
11 October 2015 GT Stewart Solicitors & Advocates We are a leading Legal Aid firm with vacancies in London and Kent for Housing solicitors to work within the Housing Team Department. We are seeking the following:-
Interested candidates should email their CV and covering letter to recruitment@gtstewart.co.uk Closing date for applications: 7 October 2015 Take advantage of the opportunity to advertise your job vacancies here FREE. |
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