A legal expert suggests the Renters Rights Bill may, when it becomes law, help raise property standards.

Edmund Fetherstone-Dilke, a partner at Farrer & Co., says numerous pieces of legislation have in the past attempted to improve property standards in the private rental sector. 

He writes on his company website: “Those with long memories might observe that this is by no means the first time that governments have tried to intervene with minimum acceptable standards for housing. We have Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which places a repairing responsibility on landlords and has been in force for a very long time. 

“The Housing Act 2004 (in force since April 2006) introduced a substantial body of legislation again aimed at improving standards of residential accommodation (with enhanced enforcement obligations placed on local authorities as part of this push). The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, which came into effect in March 2019, then brought in further standards requiring landlords to ensure that rental properties were fit for human habitation.”

Fetherstone-Dilke says that despite these laws, there are numerous reports of poor standards in the PRS – but he says the Renters Rights Bill may succeed in changes. 

He continues: “There are reasons to think things might be different this time. The first is the proposed creation of a property ombudsman, a database and potentially a property redress scheme. It appears that the schemes are to be funded by levies imposed upon landlords, and therefore it is possible that there will be resources to ensure that sanctions might be applied, as resourcing is currently a significant hurdle to local authority led enforcement action.

“The second reason that the new system might work is that tenants will now enjoy (broadly speaking) security of tenure. While retaliatory eviction (evicting a tenant after they complain about disrepair) has been prohibited for some time now, the possibility of being served with a Section 21 notice would plainly act as a disincentive to most tenants when it comes to making a complaint to the landlord or an ombudsman. With security of tenure assured there is less disincentive to complain about wants of repair.”

However, he admits there is still scope for argument within the new law, as a decision on a specific property’s condition may turn on expert surveyors’ evidence, which may be open to dispute amongst other surveyors.

You can read the full piece on the Farrer website here: https://www.farrer.co.uk/news-and-insights/the-renters-rights-bill-and-another-thing/