Homelessness Reduction Bill added to the Programme for
Allocations Conference 2016: Law, Policy & Best Practice

Following the DCLG announcement that the Government will be supporting the Homelessness Reduction Bill we are delighted to confirm that the implications of the provisions of the Bill will now be covered in the Allocations Conference 2016: Law, Policy & Best Practice Programme on 4 November in London

HOUSING LAW NEWS & POLICY ISSUES

Social housing sales in England
On 20 October 2016the DCLG published statistics on the number of sales of existing social housing stock in England for 2015 to 2016. In 2015-16 there were 21,992 sales of social housing dwellings, 12,557 by local authorities and 9,435 by private registered providers (PRP) (housing associations). The 21,992 sales amount to about 0.5% of the total stock of 4 million social houses. Local authority Right to Buy sales amounted to 12,246 (a similar number to the previous year). There were 3,977 preserved Right to Buy sales by PRPs (down 6% on the previous year). Right to Buy and preserved Right to Buy sales totalled 16,223. In 2015/16, local authority Right to Buy sales had an average discount of 45% of the selling price (18 percentage points higher than in 2011-12). PRP Right to Buy sales had an average discount of 52% of the selling price (21 percentage points higher than in 2011-12). To access the full statistics, click here

Troubled families
Following publication on 17 October by the DCLG of several documents arising from research into the first Troubled Families Programme 2012 to 2015 [referred to in Housing Law Week of 19 October 2016, for which click here], the House of Commons Library published on 20 October 2016 a research briefing paper which looks at this and similar, historic programmes of targeted family intervention, as well as the inclusion of the Troubled Families programme in local government devolution deals. For the briefing, click here

Affordable housing – Wales
On 19 October 2016 the Welsh Government published an annual report which shows that in the 12 months to 31 March 2016 local authorities reported 2,400 additional affordable housing units had been delivered across Wales (an increase of 8% on the previous year). This brings the total delivered since April 2011 to 11,508 which exceeds the previous Government target on affordable housing provision by 15%. For the full figures, click here

Homelessness Reduction Bill
On 24 October 2016 the DCLG confirmed that the Homelessness Reduction Bill will be supported by the Government. For the DCLG press statement, click here On 21 October 2016 the House of Commons published the Bill which is due to have a second reading on 28 October 2016. For the Bill, click here In response to the Bill’s publication, several organisations have issued statements. For that of the Local Government Association, click here For the statement of Crisis, click here For more details about the Bill, see Housing Laws in the Pipeline which will monitor weekly progress of the Bill.

Landlord registration – Wales
The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 (Commencement No. 7) Order 2016 brings into force on 23 November 2016 the following provisions of Part 1 (regulation of private rented housing) of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 which implement the compulsory landlord registration scheme: sections 4, 9, 11, 13, 28, 30 to 33, 35, 43 and 44 and the following provisions for all remaining purposes: sections 5 to 8, 10, 12, 29, 34, 40 to 42 and 46. For the Commencement Order, click here For the statute, click here For more details of Rent Smart Wales (ie the Welsh landlord registration scheme), click here For information about the scheme (provided by the Residential Landlords Association), click here

Buy to let
Following the Bank of England Prudential Regulation Authority announcement that new underwriting standards will be introduced for buy-to-let mortgages the Residential Landlords Association has produced a briefing informing landlords how the new rules will affect them. For more details, click here

Right to invest
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has established a system to allow council tenants to buy into a shared ownership scheme which it is calling Right To Invest to assist tenants who meet the normal criteria for Right To Buy but are unable to obtain mortgages. For more details, click here

Race discrimination in housing
On 20 October 2016 Human City Institute published a report – Forty Years of Struggle: A Window on Race and Housing, Disadvantage and Exclusion –  concludes that legislation, statutory and regulatory codes from the 1960s onwards, have failed to confront adequately and systematically racial disadvantage and discrimination in housing and that that BME groups remain disadvantaged in the housing system. To read the report, click here

Private letting rents – Scotland
On 24 October CityLets reported that in the last quarter average rents in the Scottish private rented sector stood at £775 per month, just £2 off the all-time high of £777 observed in the previous quarter. Annual growth has remained at 2.4%. To read the report, click here

Student accommodation
On 25 October 2016 The Guardian reported that the publication Property Week has been forced to withdraw a category from their student accommodation awards, after a handpicked panel of students refused to choose a winner of the “student experience” category in protest over increasing rent prices. To read the report, click here

HOUSING LAWS IN THE PIPELINE

Renters’ Rights Bill
This is a Private Members’ Bill introduced in the House of Lords by Baroness Grender which seeks to provide tenants and prospective tenants with certain rights, including affording access to a local housing authority’s database of rogue landlords, ending certain letting fees and providing for certain mandatory electrical safety checks. The Bill had its Second Reading on 10 June 2016 and will enter the Committee stage on a date to be announced. For the Bill as introduced, click here To read debates at all stages of the Bill’s passage, click here For progress of the Bill, click here

Crown Tenancies Bill
This is a Private Members’ Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Wendy Morton which seeks to provide that ​Crown tenancies may be assured tenancies for the purposes of the Housing Act 1988, subject to certain exceptions; to modify the assured tenancies regime in relation to certain Crown tenancies; and for connected purposes. The Bill is being prepared for publication and is due to have its Second Reading on 16 December 2016. For progress of the Bill, click here

Homelessness Reduction Bill
This is a Private Members’ Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Bob Blackman which seeks to amend the Housing Act 1996 to make provision about measures for reducing homelessness; and for connected purposes. The Bill is due to have its Second Reading on 28 October 2016. For the Bill as introduced, click here For progress of the Bill, click here For a record of proceedings, click here The House of Commons Select Committee for Communities and Local Government has published a report following its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill: to read the report, click here On 24 October 2016 the DCLG confirmed that the Homelessness Reduction Bill will be supported by the Government. For the DCLG press statement, click here On 21 October 2016 the Local Government Association published a response to publication of the Bill; for the LGA press release, click here

Housing (Tenants' Rights) Bill
This is a Private Members’ Bill introduced by Caroline Lucas which seeks to establish a Living Rent Commission to conduct research into, and provide proposals for, reducing rent levels in the private rented sector and improving terms and conditions for tenants; to require the Secretary of State to report the recommendations of the Commission to Parliament; to introduce measures to promote long-term tenancies; to establish a mandatory national register of ​landlords and lettings agents; to prohibit the charging of letting or management agent fees to tenants; and for connected purposes. The Bill is being prepared for publication and is due to have its Second Reading on 20 January 2017. For progress of the Bill, click here

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NEW HOUSING CASES

Cardiff County Council v Lee (Flowers) [2016] EWCA Civ 1034
Cardiff County Council (“the Council”) had applied for a possession order against the Tenant in relation to his flat held on a secure tenancy.  The Council claimed possession on the grounds of “breach of tenancy and nuisance and annoyance.” The District Judge made an order for possession suspended for two years on terms. Subsequently, the Council notified the Tenant that it intended to seek a warrant for possession.  However, the Council completed Form N325, A Request for a Warrant of Possession of Land. The court issued the warrant.  The Tenant’s application to suspend the warrant was dismissed by the District Judge.  The Tenant’s further appeal to the Circuit judge was also dismissed.  The Tenant appealed to the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the Tenant’s appeal. It concluded (Lady Justice Arden giving the leading judgment) that when the Council had obtained the possession order it became entitled to the remedy of possession, subject to satisfying the condition that the Tenant had not complied with the terms on which the order had been suspended.  Whilst The Council should have sought the court’s permission to issue the warrant under Civil Procedure Rule 83.2 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, Rule 3.10 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 makes it clear that a procedural error does not invalidate any step in the proceedings unless the court so ordered.   It also provides that the court may remedy such an error.  In this case the court had remedied the error by hearing the Tenant’s application to discharge the warrant for possession and having rejected it by validating the warrant.

The Court emphasised that Civil Procedure Rule 83.2 was “an important protection” for tenants.  In this case had the Council not been able to show it had made such a genuine mistake or had it known that it had not been entitled to proceed in the way it had then the outcome of the case would have been very different.

Her Ladyship emphasised that, “Social landlords must ensure from now on their systems are such that the same mistake will not be made in the future” and expressed the hope that the Civil Procedure Rule committee would consider whether any amendment could be made to Form N325 to make it clear that there are cases in which the court’s permission must be sought.
For the full judgment click here

Stodday Land Limited and Ripway Properties Limited v William Marsland Pye [2016] EWHC 2454 (Ch)

Whilst this case concerns service of a notice on an agricultural tenant, it has wider implications.
Mr Pye (“The Defendant”) had an oral agricultural tenancy under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 of about 18 acres of land. The registered proprietor of the Holding, Stodday Land Limited (“the First Appellants”) sold a small parcel of the Holding comprising some 0.114 acres to Ripway Properties Limited (“the Second Appellants”).  The contract for the sale was completed on 19 June 2013 but registration of the purchaser’s legal title at HM Land Registry did not take place until 16 July 2013. 

On 1 July 2014 the Defendant was served with two notices; a notice to quit served by the Second appellants seeking possession of the small parcel of the Holding that they had acquired on the basis that the land was required for other uses and purporting to end the tenancy on 1 July 2014. The second was a set of notices to quit served by the First Appellants seeking possession of the remainder of the plot (or most of it) on the grounds of alleged rent arrears.

The Defendant’s argument that the notices were not valid was upheld at first instance.  On appeal, Mr Justice Norris made it clear that to be valid at common law the notice to quit must be given by “the person entitled to the Landlord’s reversionary estate: and it must relate to the whole of the land comprised in the tenancy.”

He also observed that notice to quit could only be given by the landlord to his immediate tenant. He considered that the Defendant had an annual periodic tenancy so that the notice to quit had not been served in the right of any contractual provision in the tenancy agreement.

His Lordship considered that ownership of the equitable title was not sufficient for service of an effective notice and that furthermore, subsequent acquisition of the legal estate could not validate the notice retrospectively. This meant that the Second Appellants had not been able to terminate the Defendant’s tenancy during the period of the “registration gap” ie between completion of the purchase and registration of their title.

He concluded that notice to quit by the Second Appellants had not been given in relation to the entire Holding so that the Defendant’s tenancy continued.

For the full judgment click here

Council Prosecutes Landlord Following Serious Fire
The London Borough of Waltham Forest has reported that following an investigation by its officers into a fire at a property it was discovered that the property which had been licensed as two flats (each in occupation by a single family) was, in fact, in multiple occupation with a total of fourteen people living there.  It is further reported that the property had inadequate fire precautions.  The landlord pleaded guilty at Thames Magistrates on 7 October 2016.  He was fined £5,000 for breach of licence conditions (£2500 for each flat) and ordered to pay prosecution costs of over £2000. For the full report click here

HOUSING LAW CONSULTATIONS

Law Commission reform programme
The Law Commission has opened the consultation for its 13th Programme of law reform. The responses received will inform the majority of the Law Commission’s work from 2017 to 2020. The Commission is asking for the public’s help to identify areas of the substantive law of England and Wales that need reform, and to prioritise those reforms. It is also suggesting some potential projects that could form part of its Programme, and it would like to have views on these. Within these proposals is a suggestion that there might be areas of residential, commercial or agricultural landlord and tenant law which impose unnecessary restrictions, inefficiencies or costs. For more information about the Programme, including the criteria for project selection, click here For more details of the proposal concerning leasehold law, click here The consultation closes on 31 October 2016.

Justice system reform
The Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunal Service has published a consultation document outlining what the Ministry of Justice is doing to achieve reform of the justice system, and invites the public and interested stakeholders to give their views on certain specific measures. In respect of civil proceedings, the document proposes: introducing a new online process for resolving claims; encouraging parties to resolve disputes themselves where possible; extending the fixed recoverable costs regime; civil enforcement; and replacing statutory declarations in county court proceedings with a witness statement verified by a statement of truth. Where required, legislation will be introduced to implement those measures. To read the consultation document, click here The document was accompanied by a joint statement from the Lord Chancellor, Lord Chief Justice, and the Senior President of Tribunals on their shared vision for the future of Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunal Service: to read the joint statement, click here The consultation will be conducted by online survey: to access the survey, click here The consultation closes on 27 October 2016.

Houses in multiple occupation and residential property licensing
The DCLG has opened a consultation on extending the mandatory licensing of houses in multiple occupation. The consultation seeks views on the Government’s proposed details for: the mandatory licensing of houses in multiple occupation; the assumptions made in its associated impact assessment; national room sizes; the fit and proper person test; refuse disposal facilities; and purpose built student accommodation. For the consultation document, click here To respond online, click here  The consultation closes on 13 December 2016.

HOUSING LAW ARTICLES & PUBLICATIONS

Recent Developments in Housing Law Jan Luba QC & Nic Madge [2016] October issue of Legal Action. Available in print and on-line for Legal Action subscribers. For the latest issue, click here For back-issues, click here

Gypsy and Traveller: update Chris Johnson, Dr Angus Murdoch and Marc Willers QC [2016] October issue of Legal Action. Available in print and on-line for Legal Action subscribers. For the latest issue, click here

What next for England’s troubled families? Louise Woodruff [2016] Joseph Rowntree Foundation 19 October. To read this article, click here

The London borough with a '50-year waiting list' for council houses Peter Walker [2016] Guardian 19 October. To read this article, click here

Living Home Standard Steve Battersby [2016] UK Housing Professionals Forum 19 October. To read this article, click here

Why Evan Davies understands the housing crisis Pete Jefferys [2016] Shelter Blog 19 October. To read this article, click here

Issuing warrants for possession Andrew Lane [2016] Local Government Lawyer 20 October. To read this article, click here

Reducing homelessness needs bills and bricks Kate Webb [2016] Shelter Blog 21 October. To read this article, click here

Fining homeless people for being homeless is cruel and unworkable Dawn Foster [2016] Guardian 21 October. To read this article, click here

Warrant on breach of SPO – permission required Giles Peaker [2016] Nearly Legal 22 October. To read this article, click here

Limited company buy-to-lets enable landlords to leverage assets Doug Hall [2016] Residential Landlords Association 24 October. To read this article, click here

License to thrill – new changes to HMO licensing are worth getting excited about John Bibby [2016] Shelter Blog 24 October. To read this article, click here

HMO and residential property licensing reforms consultation – and first thoughts Steve Battersby [2016] UK Housing Professionals Forum 19 October. To read this article, click here

THE HOUSING LAW DIARY

27 October 2016        
Consultation on Justice system reform closes (see Housing Law Consultations)

28 October 2016        
Second Reading of Homelessness Reduction Bill (see Housing Laws in the Pipeline)

31 October 2016        
Consultation on Law Commission reform programme closes (see Housing Law Consultations)

4 November 2016        
Lime Legal’s Allocations Conference

23 November 2016        
Deadline for registration by residential landlords in Wales

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