This is a question to the blog clinic  from Thelma (not her real name), who is a landlord in England. Can I move a long-term tenant (in arrears due to benefits mess up and having to move from housing benefit to Universal Credit), from a fixed term lease to a periodic tenancy? And if so, without a written agreement, how do I increase the rent going forward – would a signed and witnessed written agreement suffice legally? And will the guarantor still be fully liable as the original guarantee states “.. I will pay any sums due from the tenant as a result of the tenant’s failure to pay rent ..read more

Welcome to our weekly Newsround where we give you all the trending housing news, plus a little bit more. Social Housing Ombudsman to take on PRS disputes Government minister Jacob Young has confirmed that going forward, disputes between private landlords and tenants will be dealt with by the existing Social Housing Ombudsman Service. Landlords will be required to join its service and pay a fee. Tenants will then be able to raise any complaint about their landlord to the PRS Ombudsman for free, if they are unhappy with the way in which their issue is being dealt with by their landlord. This wil ..read more

Here is a roundup of our blog posts for November. Thursday 2nd November Landlord Law Blog Roundup for October 2023 Our roundup of posts for October Friday 3rd November Landlord Law Newsround #315 Housing news and weekly updates Monday 6th November Urban Myth – it can’t be an HMO if all the tenants sign the same tenancy agreement  know when you have an HMO or not Wednesday 8th November If the tenancy agreement ‘gifts’ white goods to the tenant, are they really his? This was a question asked via my Blog Clinic from a tenant Friday 10th November Landlord Law Newsround #316 Our weekly Newsrou ..read more

Eviction should only ever be a last resort for landlords.  As it is stressful and can take a very long time. However if you have no alternative – the Landlord Law service can help you save money.  Watch the video and then click the link below: Click here to find out more The post Landlords! Do you need to evict your tenants? appeared first on The Landlord Law Blog ..read more

This post is part of my urban myths series. You can see the rest of the series here. I sometimes get asked by landlords about how long a section 21 notice lasts. Questions include: Can I let the tenant stay on after the end of the notice period? If I allow the tenant to stay on will I have to serve a new notice? How long does the section 21 notice last for? The answers to these questions has changed a bit since I first wrote this post in 2010. Let’s take a look at them. What’s the same You can certainly let your tenants stay on after the end of the notice period. Serving a Section 21 notice ..read more

This is a question to the blog clinic from David, who is a landlord in England. I have one property. The AST with my tenants will end in a few month’s time. I do not intend to ask them to sign another AST and wish to allow the Agreement to become periodic. I will protect their deposit again, but do I need a new gas certificate? Is there anything else I need to do? Answer Gas safety inspections need to be carried out annually, after which the certificate needs to be given to the tenants. The date the inspection needs to be done is linked to when it was last carried out, not the end or start d ..read more

Let us see what been happening in the housing news this week. Local Housing Allowance increase In the Chancellors Autumn Statement this week Jeremy Hunt announced that he has unfrozen the Local Housing Allowance and increased to the lower 30th percentile of local market rents from April 2024. This has followed long campaigns from all sides of the rental market both charities, private landlords and local authorities saying that they were well behind the market rent and was a major factor in driving up homelessness. Jeremy Hunt said Because rent can constitute half the living costs of private r ..read more

This is a question to the blog clinic from Jo, who is a tenant in England. My fixed term of 6 months is up shortly. It will then become a periodic contractual agreement.  It states that “The tenant may bring the tenancy to an end at, or at any time after the expiry of the fixed term by giving the landlord at least one month’s written notice stating that the Tenant wishes to vacate the property. A letter will suffice to implement this sub-clause. While the tenancy is periodic, the one months notice must expire the day before a Rent Due Date.” I am still currently in the fixed period. I ha ..read more

In June 2009 I wrote a post on this blog on the revolving door of housing ministers. At that time, we had a Labour government (it seems a long time ago now). I pointed out that since 1997 we had had nine housing ministers (listed in the post). So what about the Tories? During the Tory government so far, (according to Wikipedia), we have had sixteen – Grant Shapps – two years and four months Mark Prisk – one year and one month Kris Hopkins – nine months Brandon Lewis – two years Gavin Barwell – eleven months Alok Sharma – seven months Dominic Raab – six months Kit Malthouse – one year Esther ..read more

Welcome to our weekly Newsround where we give you all the trending housing news, and this week the Renters Reform Bill is very much in the news.  But first – New Right to Rent guide The Home office has issued an update to the Right to Rent guide. The updated version gives guidance to landlords on how to avoid discrimination when carrying out checks. The updated guide says It is unlawful to discriminate against individuals on grounds of protected characteristics, including race, when entering into residential tenancy agreements. Landlords should apply checks to all occupiers, whether or n ..read more