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120 pages

English

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This latest publication in the Emerald Home Lawyer Series, Landlord and Tenant Law, is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of the law as it affects landlord and tenant. As well as being an invaluable guide for the professional, it will be very useful for landlords who let property and also for tenants. The book is clear and concise and covers the following areas: The law relating to property generally, An outline of different tenure types, Public/private tenants, Freeholders and leaseholders, Letting property, Rent and service charges, Repairing responsibilities, Legal action against landlord or tenant. The impact of the pandemic is also covered.

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Publié par	Straightforward Publishing
Date de parution	25 août 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781802361810
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0300€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

EMERALD HOME LAWYER
GUIDE TO LANDLORD AND TENANT LAW
John McQueen
Editor: Roger Sproston
Emerald Guides
Emerald Guides
2022 Straightforward Co Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder.
British Cataloguing in Publication data. A catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-80236-093-6 ePUB ISBN: 978-1-80236-181-0 Kindle ISBN: 978-1-80236-174-2
Printed in the United Kingdom by 4edge www.4edge.co.uk
Cover Design by BW Studio Derby
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this book is accurate at the time of going to print, the author and publisher recognise that the information can become out of date. The book is therefore sold on the understanding that no responsibility for errors and omissions is assumed, and no responsibility is held for the information held within.
CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Outline of the Law generally
2. Obligations in Leases
3. Repairing Obligations
4. Assignments
5. Assured and Assured Shorthold Tenancies
6. Joint Tenancies
7. The Rent Act 1977-Protected Tenancies
8. Standards of fitness in the private and public sectors
9. Public Sector Tenancies
10. Private Tenancies in Scotland
11. The Law Mobile Homes and Residential Houseboats
12. Service Charges and the Law
13. Enfranchisement and Extension of Leases
14. Business Tenancies
15. Agricultural Tenancies
Index
Introduction
This Revised Edition of A Guide to Landlord and Tenant Law, updated to 2022 , is a wide-ranging and comprehensive book dealing with all aspects of the law as it governs the relationship between people and the ownership and tenancy of land.
The relationship between landlord and tenant has always been complex and has changed immeasurably over the centuries, particularly in the 20 th and 21 st centuries, with the huge social changes that have transformed the structure of the ownership of land. Gradually, the law has provided more and more protection for the tenant, eroding the privileges of the main, land-owning classes. One such recent example is the Leasehold Reform (And Ground Rents) Act 2022 which became law on June 30 th , 2022. This legislation capped the amount of ground rents freeholders can charge to a peppercorn. An outline of this Act is contained in Appendix 1, with reference throughout the book as appropriate.
Coronavirus temporary law changes
Since the last edition of this book in 2018, the United Kingdom has been through some fairly significant events and changes, the Grenfell Tower Fire, BREXIT and COVID 19 to name the main ones. The Grenfell Tower disaster and COVID 19 have had the most impact of landlord and tenant law, with changes to the rights and responsibilities of landlord and tenant, namely developers, freeholders, and leaseholders. The Grenfell fire exposed the deadly effects of cosmetic cladding used to envelope buildings. (See below)
At the time of writing in 2022, we have passed the peak of the coronavirus epidemic, or at least the effects that the pandemic had on housing. Landlords are free to repossess properties and mortgage providers to foreclose. To date however, the Tsunami of homelessness hasn t been as drastic as was envisaged.
Evictions and possession proceedings
All evictions were suspended until March 31st, 2021, this affected mortgage holders as well as private and social renters across England and Wales.
The stay on possession proceedings expired on 20 September 2020 and landlords are now able to progress their possession claim through the courts. Courts will carefully prioritise the most egregious cases, such as those involving antisocial behaviour and other crimes. Longer notice periods and new court rules apply in all local tiers.
To protect against Coronavirus (COVID-19) transmission, the government changed the law to ensure bailiffs did not enforce evictions in all local tiers in England until 11 January 2021. For a full breakdown of housing and coronavirus, and the situation in 2022, go to:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing advice/coronavirus .
Landlords have been warned not to lose sight of the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard regulation which came into force on 1 April 2020. The changes mean properties where tenancies pre-date April 2018 must have an Energy Performance Rating above E. When initially introduced in April 2018, all properties marketed for let were legally required to have an EPC (energy performance certificate) rating of E or above before the commencement of any new tenancies. However, the legislation will shortly be extended to also cover properties where current tenancies pre-date April 2018. Landlord regulatory requirements have not been relaxed during the coronavirus outbreak and financial penalties for non-compliance remain enforceable, with a potential fine of up to 5,000 per infraction.
Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018
This Act, which came into force on 20 March 2019 and is outlined in chapter 8 covers the private and public sectors. The aim of the Act is to help drive up standards in rented homes in both the social and private sectors and provide an alternative means for tenants to seek redress from their landlord if their rented property presents a risk of harm to the health and safety of the occupiers. It does this by empowering tenants to hold their landlord, including registered providers such as housing associations, to account without having to rely on their local authority to do so.
This is a power for tenants and does not alter any existing local authority powers. However, local authorities may decide that they have a part to play in supporting tenants to seek redress under the Act, so may want to consider how the Act fits in with their existing private rented sector enforcement policy and how this information may inform their strategy.
The Act adds to the existing regulatory framework. Under the Act, sections are inserted into the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requiring all landlords (private and social) to ensure that their properties, including any common parts of the building, are fit for human habitation at the beginning of the tenancy and throughout. The Act does so by implying a covenant to this effect in the tenancy agreement.
The government had stated: Landlords should make every effort to ensure they are meeting at least the new minimum standards despite the logistical challenges imposed by the outbreak. It is vital to maintain open channels of communication with tenants to ensure that they are not vulnerable or self-isolating before proceeding with any essential work.
Leaseholders have been in the news, for several reasons, with the exposure of extortionate ground rents and the government has banned the sale of new build leasehold property. This is because property developers have been completing schemes and then selling on the freehold to companies who are able to profit from the outsize ground rents which in many cases render a property impossible to sell in the future.
Grenfell Tower
Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, and the revelation that cladding around the building had contributed to the rapid spread of the fire, there have been high profile cases where freeholders have tried to pass on the costs of stripping buildings to leaseholders, in some cases tens of thousands of pounds. The Government has, introduced the Fire Safety Act 2021 (effective from April 2021) and the Building Safety Bill that is making its way through Parliament in 2022. In addition, the government has now announced that many developers have signed up to an agreement that all costs of stripping buildings of cladding, plus any associated costs such as nightwatch will be borne by developers and not leaseholders. This may, however, exclude buy-to-let landlords in a block. One other element in the Building Safety Bill is that Leaseholders facing building safety remediation costs will be able to seek legal action for homes built up to 15 years ago. Further, in January 2021, the government announced that leaseholders in England are to be given the right to extend their leases by up to 990 years at zero ground rent, in a move the government claimed could save households tens of thousands of pounds. However, although the Leasehold Reform (And Ground Rent) Act 2022 came into force on June 30 th , 2022, the right to extend leases was not included. The Act deals with prohibiting ground rents in new leases.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it is also working on establishing a Commonhold Council involving government, leasehold groups, and industry representatives to prepare the market for widespread take-up of commonhold.
One other move to protect leaseholders is that reforms have been proposed by the law commission which advocates that homeowners with long leases on flats, who already have the Right-To Manage (RTM) their flats should benefit from changes to make the system easier and more accessible and more certain. These include enabling leasehold houses, as well as flats, to qualify for RTM, permitting multi-block RTM on estates and removing restrictions on buildings which have more than 25 per cent commercial space.
Future legislation affecting the private sector
There are plans to ban no-fault evictions and to make it easier for tenants to keep pets will be unveiled as part of the government s new deal for private renters.
More than 14,000 private landlords started court proceedings to evict tenants between October and December 2021. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is set to publish its fairer private rented sector white paper, which it describes as the biggest shake-up of the private rented sector in 30 years . Among the proposals to be unveiled are a pledge to ou