Letting the cat out of the bag
Over the past 12 months the private rented sector has been hit by a range of legislative changes.
The one that received the most coverage was the 3% supplement on Stamp Duty Land Tax, payable when purchasing buy to let and second homes.
Other changes which may have slipped under the radar, are as follows:-
- Any Landlord who took a deposit from their tenants since 6th April 2007 has been under an obligation to protect this deposit under one of the various Deposit Protection Schemes. However, Landlords who took a deposit before 6th April 2007, for a tenancy with a fixed term which expired after 6th April 2007, must now also have these deposits placed in a Deposit Protection Scheme. There is a penalty for non-compliance. Landlords who took a deposit before the 6th April 2007, but with the fixed term expiring before 6th April 2007, but where the tenant has remained in occupation without a new Tenancy Agreement don’t need to protect the deposit. However, if these Landlords want to serve a Section 21 Notice on their Tenants, bringing the Tenancy to an end, they will need to protect the deposits before serving the notice.
- Any Landlord granting a tenancy after 1st October 2015 must serve on their tenants:-
- A Gas Safety Certificate for the property
- An Energy Performance Certificate, and
- The Government’s “How to Rent” booklet.
Failure to do so will, again, jeopardise the Landlord’s ability to validly serve a Section 21 Notice on their tenants.
- In order to combat “retaliatory eviction” (where a Landlord uses Section 21 to evict a Tenant who had complained about the condition of a property instead of getting work done), Landlords are now unable to use Section 21 within 6 months after service on the Landlord of one of three specified Local Authority Notices, the most important of which is an improvement notice (Environmental Health Officers are unlikely to serve these notices for anything other than serious disrepair or health and safety issues).
