HOUSING LAW NEWS & POLICY ISSUES

'Rogue' private landlords and student tenants
On 25 March 2019 the Universities Minister Chris Skidmore warned rogue private landlords against exploiting students by providing poor and substandard living conditions. In a speech to students Mr Skidmore reminded landlords that the Homes (Fit for Human Habitation) Act 2018, now in force, empowers tenants to take landlords to court where they fail to address serious defects such as mould, damp and safety hazards. For details of the speech, click here.

Homes (Fitness for Habitation) Act 2018
For an article, written by Neil Brand for Local Government Lawyer, setting out key considerations for local authorities and landlords arising from the Homes (Fitness for Habitation) Act 2018, which came into force on 20 March 2019, click here.

Rough Sleeping Strategy: further funding announced
On 25 March 2019 the Communities Secretary James Brokenshire announced that £46 million will be allocated to 246 areas as part of the government’s £100 million Rough Sleeping Strategy. The new funding will be used to finance rough sleeping coordinator roles, add new or additional outreach services and extend existing or provide new temporary accommodation.

Across all areas, the Government estimates that the money will provide funding for up to:

• 110 rough sleeping coordinators to improve local handing of the issue
• 300 outreach workers
• 350 other support and specialist roles
• over 1,400 new emergency bed spaces, including winter night shelter provision
• over 700 new long-term beds, including in the private rented sector and supported housing
• more than 500 new temporary spaces, through hostels for example
• over £2.5 million for spot-purchasing beds and increasing access to accommodation.

Some projects will provide specialist support such as family reconnections, immigration advice or access to mental and physical health services. Others will focus on providing services for specific groups of people, such as vulnerable women, those transitioning from leaving care or people trying to get their life back on track after leaving prison.

For more details, click here.

Fire and building safety
On 21 March 2019 the MHCLG announced that a new group of eight social landlords and their respective residents will come together to engage social housing residents on fire and building safety issues. The Social Sector Engagement Best Practice Group is a key measure of the government’s Social Housing Green Paper and the Building a Safer Future implementation plan. Each social landlord represented in the group will be joined by a resident from their respective housing stock to help share best practice and challenge existing approaches towards ensuring resident safety. Group members will decide on and implement short-term pilots to be trialled over a six-month period covering a wide range of approaches to keeping residents informed on the safety of their building. Following the pilots, the panel will present its findings to the government which will be used to inform and develop future policy. For the announcement and details of the group members, click here. For the terms of reference etc, click here.

Gang imprisoned for £1m housing benefit fraud
On 18 March 2019 the Crown Prosecution Service reported that seven benefit assessors have been sentenced to prison for a total of 17 years for their roles in housing benefit fraud which saw more than £1m stolen from three councils in London. The assessors worked in the local authorities of Lambeth, Kingston and Barking and Dagenham creating false housing benefit claims over a period of six years and sending the funds to accounts they controlled. The gang would identify properties, collect details for false claims and create appointments for the fraudsters at the council. They also approved false claims and used their systems to ensure council letters, which might have revealed their fraud, were not sent to the properties. Money was credited to accounts controlled by money launderers who left the country before they could be charged. For further details of the case, click here.

Homeless veterans: funding announced
On 20 March 2019 the Communities Secretary announced that a £1 million fund would be established to help eleven local areas provide vulnerable veterans with access to housing advice, reducing the risk of homelessness. Money could also be used to direct former soldiers to existing specialist support services on offer, such as access to supported housing and training for staff on mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder and how to support those former service personnel who may initially be reluctant to receive help. For the announcement, click here.

Troubled Families Programme: evaluation published
On 19 March 2019 the MHCLG published evidence from the National Evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme which shows that the scheme has improved outcomes for families and helped reform local services. When compared to a similar control group, the programme of targeted intervention was found to have:

• reduced the proportion of children on the programme going into care by a third
• reduced the proportion of adults on the programme going to prison by a quarter and juvenile convictions by 15 per cent
• supported more people on the programme back in work with 10% fewer people claiming Jobseekers Allowance.

For the evaluation, click here. For comment by the Communities Secretary, click here.

Universal Credit and landlords
On 19 March 2019 the Department for Work and Pensions published updated guides explaining what Universal Credit means for landlords. The guides have been amended to include information for social landlords about April 2019 rent changes. For the guides, click here.

Leasehold reform: report from Select Committee
On 19 March 2019 the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee published a report calling for “wide ranging reforms to the leasehold system”. The Committee found that the balance of power in existing leases, legislation and public policy is too heavily weighted against leaseholders. The Committee concluded that:

• It would be legally possible for the Government to introduce legislation to remove onerous ground rents in existing leases. Existing ground rents should be limited to 0.1 per cent of the present value of a property, up to a maximum of £250 per year.
• The Government should revert to its original plan and require ground rents on newly-established leases to be set at a peppercorn (ie zero financial value).
• The Competition and Markets Authority should investigate mis-selling in the leasehold sector and make recommendations for appropriate compensation.
• The Government needs to ensure that commonhold becomes the primary model of ownership of flats in England and Wales.
• The Government should require the use of a standardised key features document, to be provided at the start of the sales process by a developer or estate agent.

For the full report, click here. For a summary, click here. For the Law Commission’s proposals on commonhold, click here. For a summary of the key recommendations, by Giles Peaker on the Nearly Legal blog, click here.

Family left in unaffordable flat after council denies right to appeal homelessness decision: Ombudsman’s report
On 21 March 2019 the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman reported that a father who gave up his life abroad at short notice to look after his children was denied his housing rights by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council. The man had been living and working abroad when the courts removed his children from the care of his ex-partner in December 2012. He returned to the UK to look after them and was placed in an unaffordable flat by the council. He and his family have been living there ever since, and have been given no opportunity to appeal.

The Ombudsman found the council’s actions denied the father his rights as a homeless person. The council’s records show that when the father applied as homeless, it decided it owed him the full homeless duty. It should have sent the father a notice explaining this, but instead arranged a six-month private let without explaining the consequences if he signed for the property. Had the council acted properly, the flat would have been temporary accommodation, and would have remained so until it made an offer of accommodation under its allocation scheme or settled accommodation under its homelessness duty.

The council has paid more than £10,000 to the landlord to cover the family’s housing benefit shortfall, but the family still lives in the unaffordable flat. The Ombudsman has recommended that the council pay the father £4,500 for failing to deal with his homelessness and housing applications correctly and for the delay in rehousing his family to settled, affordable accommodation, and the stressful possession proceedings. The payment should also cover the arrears of £500 he still had after the council made discretionary housing payments and the time, trouble and distress the council caused him. For a report, click here and for full details of the investigation, click on the link at the top right of that report.

Private housing rental prices: February 2019
On 20 March 2019 the Office for National Statistics published data on the prices paid for renting property from private landlords in the United Kingdom. Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.1 per cent in the twelve months to February 2019, up from 1.0 per cent in January 2019. In England and Wales, private rental prices grew by 1.1 per cent, while in Scotland private rental prices increased by 0.7 per cent in the twelve months to February 2019. London private rental prices rose by 0.2 per cent in the twelve months to February 2019, up from 0.1 per cent in January 2019. For the full statistics, click here.

Homelessness: October to December 2018 – Wales
On 21 March 2019 the Welsh Government published data on the number of households applying to local authorities for housing assistance under the Housing Wales Act 2014 and the number of homeless households in temporary accommodation for October to December 2018. The release shows that:

• 2,649 households were threatened with homelessness within 56 days. This is the second highest figure (after the previous quarter) since the introduction of this legislation.
• In over two-thirds of all cases (67 per cent), homelessness was successfully prevented. The quarterly prevention rates have fluctuated within the 65 to 69 per cent range since April 2017.
• Almost 3,000 households were homeless and owed a duty to help secure accommodation. This is the highest number since the introduction of the new legislation.
• Of these, 43 per cent were successfully helped to find accommodation during the quarter. The quarterly success rates have fluctuated within the 40 to 43 per cent range since April 2017.

For the full statistics, click here.

Right to Rent: ‘a farce,’ say landlords
On 22 March 2019 the Residential Landlords Association reported details of R (Goloshvili) v Secretary of State [2019] EWHC 614 (Admin). The judgment states that the Home Office had identified a tenant without the right to rent and, in accordance with usual policy, issued a formal notice to the landlord who then used it as the basis of an application to repossess the property. In this case the High Court ruled that this breaches the Equality Act 2010 on the basis that it amounts to “direct discrimination on the basis of nationality”. The RLA says that the ruling gives tenants who may not legally be allowed to be in the country a defence against any claim to evict them from a property and entitles them to an injunction to prevent eviction and possibly a further claim for damages.

David Smith, Policy Director for the RLA, commented:

“This new ruling makes the Right to Rent a farce. To put landlords in a position where acting on a direct instruction provided by the Home Office leaves them open to breaching equality law cannot be tolerated.

“With the High Court having ruled that discrimination is baked into the Right to Rent scheme it is time for the policy to be scrapped altogether.”

For the RLA’s coverage of the case, click here. For the judgment, click here.

HOUSING LAWS IN THE PIPELINE

Local Housing Authority Debt Bill
This Bill, which had its first reading in the House of Lords on 4 July 2017, seeks to replace the current regime of limits on local housing authorities’ debt with limits determined by the existing prudential regime for local authority borrowing for non-housing-related purposes. The second reading is yet to be scheduled. For the Bill as introduced, click here To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Homeless People (Current Accounts) Bill
This is a Private Member’s Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Peter Bone. The Bill is intended to require banks to provide current accounts for homeless people seeking work; and for connected purposes. The Bill is being prepared for publication. The Bill received its first reading on 5 September 2017. The second reading was due to take place on 1 February 2019 but Parliament did not sit on that day and the second reading will now take place on a date to be announced. To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Sublet Property (Offences) Bill
This is a Private Member’s Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Christopher Chope. It is intended to make the breach of certain rules relating to sub-letting rented accommodation a criminal offence; to make provision for criminal sanctions in respect of unauthorised sub-letting; and for connected purposes. The Bill is being prepared for publication. The Bill received its first reading on 5 September 2017 and was due to receive its second reading on 23 November 2018 but was not called. To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Mobile Homes and Park Homes Bill
This is a Private Member’s Bill introduced in the House of Commons, also by Christopher Chope. It is intended to require the use of published criteria to determine whether mobile homes and park homes are liable for council tax or non-domestic rates; to make provision in relation to the residential status of such homes; to amend the Mobile Home Acts; and for connected purposes. The Bill is being prepared for publication. The Bill received its first reading on 5 September 2017 and was due to receive its second reading on 23 November 2018 but was not called. To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Affordable Home Ownership Bill
This Bill was introduced to Parliament on Tuesday 24 October 2017, also by Christopher Chope, under the Ten Minute Rule and is a Private Member’s Bill. It was said by him to make provision for affordable home ownership; to require the inclusion of rent to buy homes in the definition of affordable housing; to make provision for a minimum proportion of new affordable housing to be available on affordable rent to buy terms; to provide relief from stamp duty when an affordable rent to buy home is purchased; and for connected purposes. The Bill was due to receive its second reading on 23 November 2018 but was not called. The Bill itself has not yet been published. To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Creditworthiness Assessment Bill
This Private Member’s Bill was introduced by Lord Buck and had its second reading in the House of Lords on 24 November 2017. The Bill would require certain matters (including rental payment history) to be taken into account when assessing a borrower’s creditworthiness. The Bill has completed all stages in the Lords. It received its first reading in the Commons on 12 September 2018. Second reading had been further postponed until 22 March 2019 but the Bill was not called. For the Bill as brought from the Lords, click here For progress of the Bill, click here

Private Landlords (Registration) Bill
This Bill was introduced to Parliament on 17 January 2018 under the Ten Minute Rule. The Bill seeks to require all private landlords in England to be registered. Second reading has been postponed to a date to be announced. For the Bill, as introduced, click here To read the debate on introduction of the Bill, click here To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Leasehold Reform Bill
This Bill, introduced to Parliament on 7 November 2017 under the Ten Minute Rule and sponsored by Justin Madders, makes provision about the regulation of the purchase of freehold by leaseholders; to introduce a system for establishing the maximum charge for such freehold; to make provision about the award of legal costs in leasehold property tribunal cases; and to establish a compensation scheme for cases where misleading particulars have led to certain leasehold agreements. Second reading has been postponed to a date to be announced. For the Bill as introduced, click here To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Homelessness (End of Life Care) Bill
This Bill, sponsored by Sir Edward Davey, was introduced to Parliament on 7 February 2018 under the Ten Minute Rule. It makes provision about end of life care and support for homeless people with terminal illnesses, including through the provision of housing for such people. Second reading has been further postponed to 5 April 2019. For the Bill as introduced, click here To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Housing and Planning (Local Decision-Making) Bill
This Private Member’s Bill seeks to remove powers of the Secretary of State in relation to the location of and planning permission for new housing developments; to give local authorities powers to establish requirements on such developments in their area, including requirements on the proportion of affordable and social housing. It received its first reading on 13 March 2018. Second reading has been postponed to a date to be announced. The Bill is being prepared for publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Freehold Properties (Management Charges and Shared Facilities) Bill
This Private Members' Bill, sponsored by Helen Goodman, seeks to make provision for the regulation of fees charged by management companies to freeholders of residential properties; to make provision for self-management of shared facilities by such freeholders; and to require management companies to ensure shared facilities are of an adequate standard. It received its first reading on 14 November 2018. Second reading has been further postponed to 22 March 2019. The Bill is being prepared for publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Bill
This Welsh Government Bill includes provision for: prohibiting certain payments made in connection with the granting, renewal or continuance of standard occupation contracts; and the treatment of holding deposits. Stage 3 commenced on 30 November 2018. The Bill passed Stage 3 on 19 March 2019.  Stage 4 proceedings will take place in Plenary on 27 March 2019. For the Bill, as amended at Stage 3, associated information and to follow its progress, click here

HOUSING LAW CONSULTATIONS

Making it easier for leaseholders to manage their properties: Law Commission
The Law Commission has released a consultation paper comprising proposals designed to make it quicker and easier for leaseholders to take control of the day-to-day management of their building. The proposals include:

• Extending the qualifying criteria so that leasehold houses, not just flats, qualify for the ‘right to manage’ (RTM) which gives the homeowners, rather than their landlord, responsibility for management functions relating to services, repairs, maintenance and insurance.
• Permitting multi-block RTM on estates, and removing the 25 per cent commercial space restriction.
• Reducing the number of notices that leaseholders must serve as part of the claim process.
• Introducing deadlines for procedures and exchanges of information between the landlord and RTM company, so that the process doesn’t stall.
• Exploring options for a more balanced costs regime.
• Giving the tribunal exclusive jurisdiction over RTM disputes so it can resolve disputes quickly, and waive minor procedural mistakes made in the process of claiming the RTM.

The consultation will be open until 30 April 2019. For the consultation document, click here. For a summary, click here. For a ‘Key Facts’ document, click here.

Enforcement of possession orders and alignment of procedures in the county court and high court
The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), made by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC), govern civil court processes including enforcement of court orders, and thus of orders for possession. The CPRC is concerned that the Rules regarding enforcement of possession orders ought to be reformed but wishes to obtain views from actual and potential court users, and those potentially affected, before determining what (if any) changes to make in the existing rules and system. The proposals in this consultation are intended to improve the process of enforcement of possession orders in order to bring it up to date with a modern justice system that is open and transparent and in tune with the needs of both the claimant and defendant and others affected.

The consultation closes on 2 May 2019. For more details and to complete the online survey, click here.

Tackling homelessness together
This consultation seeks views on how the government could improve local accountability for the delivery of homelessness services. The MHCLG is seeking views on:

• the effectiveness of existing non-statutory and statutory local accountability and partnership structures in homelessness services
• whether the government should introduce Homelessness Reduction Boards and, if so, how this could be done most effectively
• how else the government might improve local accountability and partnership working in homelessness services.

The consultation closes on 16 May 2019. For the consultation document, click here.

HOUSING LAW ARTICLES & PUBLICATIONS

Councils 'struggling to cope' with Homelessness Reduction Act Mark Whitehead, LocalGov, 25 March 2019 - to read the article click here

Councils struggle to cope' with rising homelessness as Ministers “shirk responsibility” May Bulman, The Independent 23 March 2019 to read the article click here

Improve quality of rough-sleeping figures, says UK statistics chief Patrick Greenfield, The Guardian 26 March 2019 - to read the article click here

How to stop landlords profiting from homelessness? Compulsory purchase Ellie Mae O’Hagan,The Guardian 25 March 2019 - to read the article click here

Government backs major housing boost for Thames Estuary Bill Tanner, 24 housing 25 March 2019 – to read the article click here

HOUSING LAW DIARY

27 March 2019                                     
Stage 4 proceedings will take place in Plenary in respect of the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Bill (see Housing Laws in the Pipeline)

29 March 2019                                     
Closing date for applications for Rapid Rehousing Pathway funding

1 April 2019                                          
Client Money Protection Schemes for Property Agents (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc.) Regulations 2018 come into force (see Housing Law News and Policy Issues)

1 April 2019                                          
Sections 21(1) and (3), and 23 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 come into force

5 April 2019                                         
Postponed second reading of Homelessness (End of Life Care) Bill

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RECRUITMENT

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