The Renters’ Rights Act: a turning point for London’s renters, if enforced properly
In three years to 2024, over a third of London councils did not prosecute a single criminal landlord. At the same time, the cost of renting in the capital has […]
What have tax changes done to the number of holiday homes?
Over the past decade, the rapid growth of second homes and AirBnb-style short term lets has increasingly driven families out of their communities as their homes get repurposed as holiday […]
Getting the best from Newham’s renewed landlord licensing scheme
This week those campaigning for a better private rented sector received an early Christmas present with the announcement that the Communities Secretary had approved the majority of Newham’s proposal for a renewed borough-wide landlord licensing scheme.
Fire Fire! New safety regulations to protect tenants!
There has been some positive news for renters for a change! It was announced by the Minister for Fire Resilience and Emergencies, Penny Mordaunt, at the Local Government Association fire conference, that smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms are to become mandatory in all privately rented accommodation. These life-saving regulations will be laid before Parliament and will require all private sector landlords to install smoke alarms on each storey of their property, carbon monoxide alarms in the rooms considered most at risk from high levels of carbon monoxide and to check the alarms are in working order at the start of any new tenancy.
Protection from revenge evictions a postcode lottery
This week we launched the End Unfair Evictions coalition with ACORN, London Renters Union, and New Economics Foundation. We’re calling for an end to Section 21, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason.
One reason we’re doing is that existing protections are not working in practice.
Back in 2014/15, we fought a hard campaign alongside Shelter, GMB Young London and others to give tenants basic protection from eviction when they complained about their landlord.
The resulting measures in the Deregulation Act 2015 stopped landlords from serving a Section 21 eviction notice to tenants if the council had found hazards in the property and served an appropriate improvement notice on the owner. This protection lasted for 6 months and was meant to give tenants more confidence in getting their landlord to fix health and safety problems, because the landlord can no longer simply retaliate by kicking them out.
Council gets tough on letting agents
Newham Council has claimed to be the first local authority in the country to tackle letting agents who are flouting the law.
An initiative by the council to tackle poor practice by lettings agents and protect tenants has helped to improve standards in the profession with the majority of agents now complying with the law.