Regulations

House In Multiple Occupation
With effect from 6th April 2006 two key elements of the Housing Act came into force, the first is licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO)
HMO will be subject to mandatory licensing if they have:

Three stories or more.
Five or more tenants who make up two or more households
One or more shared basic amenity.
Applicants for licences Must be made by 3 July 2006, after this date enforcement action can be taken if a licence has not been applied for or obtained, or a temporary exemption notice obtained.

Each HMO let by a landlord will require a separate five (5) year licence and to qualify the landlord or Agent should be able to prove that they are fit and proper to hold a licence.
Non Compliance could leave property owners subject to fines of up to £20,000 and rent repayment orders.
Administration of HMO licensing system will be done by Local Housing Authorities and each local authority will set its own fee level for licensing application.
In addition to mandatory licensing LHAs can also introduce additional and/or selective licensing requirements and are intended to address the adverse impact that poor management and anti-social behaviour, by a few tenants, can have on other tenants.

What to do now
Landlord and Agents should contact there LHAs now to establish which property will be eligible for licences, and to start assessing their portfolios to decide whether they need to make any improvements or changes the tenancy agreements.
For more information contact: www.propertylicence.gov.uk

Local Housing Allowance

If you let to tenants receiving housing benefit, from 7th April 2008 the housing benefit scheme will be replaced by the LHA. The Local housing benefit will be paid to the tenant who will then be responsible for paying the rent directly to the landlord. This arrangement will not affect current tenants who are already claiming housing benefit before the commencement in April 2008, as landlords will continue to have the benefit paid direct to them for as long as the tenant continues to claim housing benefit at that address. For more info go to www.dwp.gov.uk/housingbenefit/lha

Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)
Secondly, the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)
applies to both rental and owner occupied housing and replaces the existing housing fitness standards set out in the 1985 Housing Act.
HHSRS is a risk-based system designed to assess the health impact a property has on its occupants. Under the system the local authority assesses 29 broad categories of hazards and provide a rating for each, based on the risk to the actual, or potential, occupant of the property.
For properties failing the assessment the local authority may:
Serve an improvement notice, make a prohibition order, serve a hazard awareness notice, make a demolition order or declare a clearance area.

Tenancy Deposit Scheme
Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) or Tenancy Deposit Protection (TDP) has been designed to protect tenants who have had difficulty recovering their deposits and to help resolve disputes between landlords and tenants.
The scheme was originally planned for implementation in October 2006. However, the government intends to introduce this for all deposit taken on assured short-hold tenancies (AST) in England and Wales after 5 April 2007 and landlord taking a deposit will be required to join a government sponsored tenancy deposit protection scheme. There are two type of schemes (1) custodial where the landlord hands over the deposit money to the scheme operator and (2) an insurance based scheme which allows the landlord or his agent to retain the deposit money. There are severe penalties if landlords do not comply.

In summary, it relates to AST agreements taken out with a tenant after 5th April 2007( an existing tenant taking out a new AST will fall into this category).
It does not apply to AST existing before this date nor rental agreement over £25,000/year.

Failure to register the tenant's deposit will weaken the landlord's position which may make the landlord unable to regain possession of the property, or a court may order the landlord to pay the tenant an amount equivalent to three (3) times the deposit. amount.

Landlords can still keep deposits after this date But must take out insurance to protect the deposit and the tenants must be given details. Of course, if there is no deposit there is no need for TDP. However, it would be prudent to secure a good guarantee to cover what the deposit would have in the first place. To obtain further assistance with TDP

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