Landlord

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has released a report on its assessment of the new requirement for landlords to establish whether tenants have a “right to rent” in the UK before granting a tenancy. The report is highly critical of the pilot scheme; JCVI’s evaluation uncovered a number of worrying direct and indirect impacts of these checks on both tenants and landlords.

Jim Fraser from Trading Standards considers the need for letting agents to provide important information about protecting deposits to tenants from a consumer rights perspective.

At the end of June 2015 over 42,000 private landlords had registered with the NI landlord registration registrar.  These landlords have provided details of over 89,000 private tenancies.  Using information from the 2011 census, the Department for Social Development suggests that roughly 94% of landlords have complied with the requirement to register.

Private landlords who fail to register may face a fixed penalty of £500 or a fine of up to £2,500.

In a recent article, we explained how consumer protection law impacts on the practices of letting agents and landlords when advertising a property to let and creating a new tenancy.  The provisions of consumer protection law also extend to business practices when managing a property or organising for renewal or termination of a tenancy.