Rent tribunals decisions analysed

Rent tribunal cases from September have now been analysed by Cyborg Finance and only 28.4% of landlords were awarded their rent increase in full.

Over 68 cases 21 resulted in a full rent increase, 29 had a partial rent increase, 12 cases remained unchanged and six were reduced and another six were struck out.

The report showed that the average rent increase rose from £1,372 to £1,464 which equates to an average of £92 more a month.

Comments from Cyborg cited that the £47 tribunal fee ‘could prove money well spent’ with an average of 91 days between service of a rent increase and getting a tribunal decision, that is a delay of around four months.

Here at Landlord Law we have a comprehensive Market Rent and Tribunal Kit.  This will help landlords set a new rent and obtain evidence to justify it if challenged.  Many of our free Daily Tips cover tribunal cases and provide advice on setting rents.

Landlords adjust to Renters Rights Act

Now that the Renters’ Rights Act has been law for a while, we are starting to see landlords adapt to new strategies on how they operate according to a new survey out by Landbay, a mortgage lender.

• 36% have increased their rents
• 34% have changed their tenant referencing/affordability crieria
• 16% more of landlords are now using a letting agent or professional body for support
• 13% of landlords are putting more aside for maintenance & repairs

Further research suggests that only 17% are aware of the new landlord registration scheme coming into force but did not know enough about the requirements.

Landlords’ details to be kept private on PRS Database….for now

Matthew Pennycook has stated in Parliament that landlords’ details held on the new PRS database will be kept private until winter 2027. He said

Future legislation will set out which landlord and property records will be publicly accessible at the point the public-facing service is launched at a later date.

Past this, information available to tenants will be ‘proportionate’. What information is published will be ‘carefully balanced with the benefits of transparency’ for tenants whilst landlords’ privacy rights, safety concerns and data protection is also taken into account. There are, however, still concerns over the lack of an audit trail.

The government has now published its guidance on registering on the PRS Database, which you can read here.

Snippets

Making Tax Digital currently hits one is six landlords
Rent rises of up to 88% still passing in England despite Renters’ Rights Act
More ‘room only’ tenancies because of Renters’ Rights Act
Bang! Tenants issued with fireworks warning
Short-let landlords face visitor levy under Government Bill

Newsround will be back again next week.  In the meantime, check out our Daily Tips service. 

PRS Ombudsman body named

The Housing Ombudsman is now expected to run the new PRS Ombudsman service, which will run as an independent dispute resolution service, according to the government this week.

Matthew Pennycook, housing minister, said

The government’s intention is that the existing Housing Ombudsman Service, which currently provides mandatory redress for social housing tenants, will set up and operate the service.

Further details have yet to be announced; however, there is speculation that compensation for tenants could be set at up to £25,000.

Tenants unaware of deposit challenge

A new survey out this week claims that out of 860 tenants surveyed, 38.2% were not aware that they could challenge their landlord on any deductions, and 25% only had a partial awareness of being able to do so.

Surprisingly, 21.8% of landlords were not aware that their tenant could challenge a deposit deduction, and 31.5% were only vaguely aware of the correct process. However, formal adjudication on disputes only accounts for 1% of all protected deposits according to Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Cleaning is the biggest dispute at 54%.

LRG lettings agents who carried out the survey said that agents should be the ones educating both tenants and landlords of their rights and options within a deposit scheme.

LHA gap widens across the private sector

The freezing of local housing allowance continues to raise concerns as more tenants are falling into rent arrears. Charities are putting pressure onto the government to raise the allowance.

One MP has challenged the government on its methodology, how up to date it is and how it is actually calculated. Stephen Timms minister for equalities rebutted the question and said

The local housing allowance determines the maximum financial support for renters in the private rented sector. Households in similar circumstances living in the same area are entitled to the same maximum rent allowance, regardless of the rent that they are required to pay.

He added that any further reviews will be based on the Government’s priorities.

Rent in advance ban locks out tenants

Two leading letting agents have stated that the government’s ban on taking rent in advance is now causing unintended major problems for poorer tenants and those from overseas.

Renters with poor credit ratings cannot now pay in advance with cash, this is locking out those tenants from renting or moving where they have been served a possession notice from previous landlords. This is putting undue pressure on homeless housing.

International students are failing the referencing criteria now that rent in advance is banned. And with no Section 21 to fall back on, landlords are understandably less likely to take the risk where previously they would have. One solution is to have a guarantor, but this is not an option for all tenants.

Snippets

New electric vehicle charging rights for tenants and leaseholders
Agents back more regulation to remove rogue firms
Renters Rights Act sees one in four landlords more likely to reject tenants
Property firm fined £240,000 for high-rise fire safety failings
Unfitness in the High Court
‘Local services are vital’: Former rough sleepers on what helped them off the streets

Newsround will be back again next week.  In the meantime, check out our Daily Tips service.

Hard evidence required for tribunal challenges

Landlords require hard evidence if they are to succeed in rent challenges by tenants who take it to a tribunal. Propertymark has carried out some research and found that tribunals in different regions are challenging accommodation floor areas, room sizes and usable living space differently.

Landlords need to clearly evidence how they reach their assessment, which comparisons they used, and whether they have outstanding repairs.

In a recent case in Manchester, the tribunal actually set the rent below what was already being charged. Any decision made by a tribunal is not binding on other tribunals, with each claim relying solely on its own hard evidence. You can read more here.

Here at Landlord Law we have The Landlord Law Market Rent and Tribunal Kit, a comprehensive and practical guide for members for assessing market rents and dealing with tenant challenges.

Accessible homes are on the rise

There is a rise in the need for accessible properties or properties that welcome requests to adapt a home to be more accessible should the need arise. 38% of tenants worry about asking landlords to accommodate changes to a property if needed; this can cause hardship and additional stress if it is turned down. Both in the private and social sector.

Lack of accessible homes is becoming a widespread issue, as it also adds financial costs for hospitals and care homes (£3.9bn), where discharging a patient can be delayed if their home is no longer suitable and requires adaptation.

46% of renters see the cost of adaptations as a top concern, along with 36% who doubted if their rental property could even accommodate the adaptations needed. A further 28% worried how the work would be funded and if further adaptations would be required further down the line.

Habinteg who carried out the survey, is also calling on councils to have a single point of contact to provide support, advice and explain how funding works before situations develop into an emergency.

Many landlords unaware of the landlords database

It appears that only 23% of landlords are aware of the impending PRS database, which is due to start a staggered launch in December. Landlords who do not register will face civil penalties of £7000 to £40,000 and a criminal prosecution. They will not be allowed to advertise a property without being registered.

August, a property management company, also found that only 46% of landlords understood the Renters’ Rights Act, and 35% whilst they understood the act had done nothing to change the way they manage their properties. 12% knew about the act but did not understand the details, and 7% were totally unaware of the act. Interestingly, the highest percentage, 59% knew about the a tenants’ right to request a pet.

Chief Executive Richard Samuel said

What has not landed is that the database and the ombudsman are not optional extras for problem landlords; every landlord in England will have to register and sign up.

The new ombudsman will bring in similar penalties, which landlords also need to be aware of.

Snippets

Tribunal turns landlord’s £50 rent rise into a £200 cut
Older renters struggling as Local Housing Allowance rates remain frozen
Agency boss fined £12,500 after tenants trapped in fire
Landlord told to repay £9,671 after trying to avoid HMO licence

Newsround will be back again next week.  In the meantime, check out our free Daily Tips service. 

Government launches consultation for Awaabs Law

The government has launched a consultation on extending Awaab’s Law in the PRS. In addition to this, the governments own impact assessment states that this could have a financial impact on landlords, causing some to leave the market.

However, they feel that the ones to leave would be the landlords offering the poorest quality of housing, which could then potentially be bought by professional landlords who would improve the standards in the sector.

They seek to address the ongoing ‘power imbalance’ between landlord and tenant, where a tenant is not in possession of all property details to the extent that a landlord is; neither do they know how quickly a landlord deals with repairs and issues when taking on a new tenancy. Rental reforms such as the Renters’ Rights Act, abolition of section 21 and the new Ombudsman are all steps in the right direction to re-address the power balance, but more needs to be done.

The consultation will help the government determine whether Awaab’s Law should also apply to supported housing, temporary accommodation for homeless people and care leaver accommodation. You can read the consultation here.

Greater transparency called for co-habiting HMO tenants

Tenants living in HMO accommodation are now asking for more details of fellow tenants that they will be sharing with. 21% of tenants say that they feel unsafe of a housemate and this rises to 27% for those over 45. 22% of men feel unsafe, compared with 21% of women.

The report by COHO, a shared living platform, states that the report now raises questions around ‘compatibility, transparency and safety’ within shared accommodation, which houses more than 2 million people. 60% of tenants wish they had known more about their housemates, while 53% of renters want some input into who is moving in to join them. 40% would be happy to pay more to ensure that they are living with compatible people.

COHO Chief Exec said

 As shared living becomes a bigger part of the housing market, landlords and operators must move away from treating housemates as anonymous occupants and instead recognise compatibility as an important part of creating successful shared homes.

The report shows that the days of not knowing who we are sharing with in HMO accommodation are outdated and one of the ‘critical factors that is overlooked’.

Landlords turn to letting agents

A quarter of all landlords now use a letting agent for full management; this is up by 5% from last year according to Pegasus Insight. For those properties that are not fully managed 34% of landlords use an agent to source their tenants, and 6% of landlords use an agent for rent collection. 34% of landlords do not use an agent.

The reasons for using an agent is due to ongoing regulatory changes that are now complex and come with high fines and penalties for non-compliance.

Time commitment has seen an increase too, according to the report, with 51 hours per month on average for those who manage their own properties and 11 hours per month for those who use an agent. This obviously increases as the portfolio increases.

Landlords who prefer not to use a letting agent can sign up for Landlord Law, which provides information and support to help landlords self-manage.

Rogue letting agent sees her day in court

A rogue letting agent in East Anglia has received a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months and 200 community hours of work for defrauding both tenants and landlords out of almost £50,000. Offences included failing to protect tenants’ deposits and not passing rental income onto landlords.

Victoria Steele’s offices were closed down in 2018, but victims are still waiting for compensation, with one saying

In the nine years that this case has been ongoing, some victims have died, some have moved and many have given up on seeing justice being handed down.

A confiscation hearing is due in February 2027.

Snippets

Mother & disabled child in property with damp & mould
Landlord given wrong deposit advice, warns solicitor
Asking rents hit record high as supply slips
Peers warn tenant access could hinder social housing electrical safety checks
Tackling antisocial behaviour: How landlords can successfully navigate Ground 14 under the Renters’ Rights era
They asked for 80 homes – she gave them 157! Council-housing miracle named Britain’s best new building

Newsround will be back again next week.  In the meantime, check out our Daily Tips service. 

The loss of the ability to require several months’ rent in advance means that accepting students without a guarantee is now risky.

Plus, student landlords risk tenants ending the tenancy early by a two-month Notice to Quit and missing out on rent for the remainder of the year. Assuming a replacement tenant cannot be found.

The government did introduce a special possession ground, ground 4A, which can be used to evict students staying on, now section 21 is gone. However, it is limited in its use.

A limited possession ground – ground 4a

One of the limitations is that the period between entering into the tenancy and the date the tenants are entitled to possession must be six months or less.

This conflicts with the common practice of students signing tenancy agreements considerably longer than that. Something which both students and landlords found helpful.

I have had quite a few questions in our Landlord Law Members Forum asking how to deal with this. For example,

• One member told me that local agents were using an ‘agreement to let’ document.
• Another asked if getting the students to sign the tenancy agreement but waiting until the deadline had passed before getting the landlord to sign it would comply.

My view is that neither of these would be a good idea and would risk losing your right to use ground 4A.

The important question is when the parties become legally committed. Calling a document an ‘agreement to let’, or postponing the landlord’s signature, may not prevent a binding agreement from being created earlier.

However, there is a solution.

Using a holding deposit

Current legislation provides for landlords to take a holding deposit from tenants to ‘hold’ the property for them.

The default period of time for holding the deposit is 15 days, but the legislation makes it clear that this can be changed by agreement.

Any different deadline must be agreed in writing. The holding deposit must not exceed one week’s rent for the proposed tenancy, even where several students are renting jointly.

So for example if you are negotiating with prospective student tenants in October for a tenancy due to start on 1 July the following year, you can extend the holding deposit period until say, 10 January (the deposit deadline).

Provided you

• Use a holding deposit agreement which reserves the property without creating a tenancy or obliging either party to enter into one;
• Provide any proposed tenancy agreement as a draft, clearly marked ‘subject to contract’, without asking the students to sign it at this stage;
• Do not enter into a binding tenancy agreement before the six-month window begins—for this example, signing from 2 January gives a little margin;
• Give the students the required written Ground 4A advance statement before entering into the tenancy; and
• Enter into the tenancy agreement by the agreed holding deposit deadline.

This gives you a reservation arrangement with the students while postponing the tenancy agreement until the appropriate time. You must still satisfy the other requirements for Ground 4A, which applies to qualifying student HMOs.

It is not as secure an arrangement as signing the tenancy agreement was in the past, but it is better than nothing.

Note that Landlord Law members can use our holding deposit documentation and draft letters.

Find more posts on student lets and the Renters Rights Act.

PRS Ombudsman now expected in 2028

The Housing Ombudsman has clarified that the new compulsory Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman is expected to go live in 2028. The Government has not yet chosen its operator.

Nearly all private landlords will ultimately have to join.  The Housing Ombudsman currently offers a voluntary membership application, but it is unconnected to the new scheme.

Out of hours tenant calls on increase

New figures out this week claim that 43% of calls from tenants are now outside of normal working hours (9am-5pm Monday to Friday). LightWork AI who ran the research has broken this down further with 28% are phone calls and 49% are emails or portal enquiries.

These findings have come as a surprise to LightWork, Leonard Charlton their co-founder said

The result is that [agents] never really finish work. They’re under pressure, they’re dealing with clients in times of high stress, and then their evenings and weekends disappear too. It’s no surprise the industry is struggling to keep good people.

The out of hours calls puts extended pressure on agents and landlords to remain available at all times, as they never know how serious a call will be.

Tenant demographic is changing

The typical tenant ‘model’ is changing as aspirations to own their homes gets further from their grasp. 76% of renters want to buy their own home yet 44% expect to now rent for the rest of their lives.

This means that tenancies are now becoming longer, the average tenancy is now 4.7 years up by a year from a decade ago. Furthermore, 30% of tenants would now like to rent in social housing; this is up from 21% last year. 47% of over 65’s would prefer social renting, along with 39% of those with children and 35% of tenants living with a health condition.

There is a growing demand for alternatives to just private renting showing that there is a lack of choice for renters and the role of private renting is changing and becoming more long term rather than a stepping stone to owning your own home. This survey from the TDS Charitable Foundation say that it is ‘important that housing policy keeps pace’ with the changing rental sector.

EPC targets still out of landlords’ reach

Everybody is becoming a lot more energy efficient when it comes to homes and data out this week shows that 42% of renters now take energy efficiency into account when deciding on a home.

Landlords are in a similar mindset with 52% of them having made improvements over the last three years. However, 38% of them are struggling to comply with the proposed minimum energy efficiency standards changes that are coming into force and claim that they are having to spend on average £9000.00 per property.

The report carried out by Barclays said that landlords are struggling because there is very little clear guidance on ‘how to improve your EPC rating’. They are asking the government to provide more support for landlords and to offer some incentives. They want finance options for the higher cost energy efficient improvements.

National Landlord Register should replace licensing schemes

This week Propertymark is calling on the government to end all local discretionary licensing schemes once the national landlord register is fully implemented as they claim that this is pure duplication.

It claims that ‘broad schemes impose significant costs and administration on responsible landlords and agents without improving enforcement’. They say that the new database should the be councils main focus and source and they should not be charging them to submit documents that will be readily available on the new national database.

This comes as the NRLA also slams the government for the new database fee, that it is three times the cost that they originally suggested, and that the new database is simply replicating what landlords provide councils with through their licensing schemes.

Snippets

HMRC sends Making Tax Digital reminder to landlords
Shelter CEO to leave role after just one year
Reform MP raises concerns about second homes – then buys one for £800,000
Spain’s rent protests could serve as a warning for UK
Ombudsman expels firms over unpaid compensation

Newsround will be back again next week.  In the meantime, check out our Daily Tips service.