Housing: Encouraging Responsible Letting
Recommendations
On 14 August 2008 we published our final proposals on better regulation of the private rented sector in the report Housing: Encouraging Responsible Letting. A press release is also available.
The project, which arises out of our previous work on housing law reform and tribunals, aims to identify and address regulatory challenges in the private rented sector. This is the first project undertaken jointly with the Welsh Assembly Government (housing is a policy area devolved to the National Assembly for Wales).
This project is not proposing major changes to the law. Rather, it examines ways in which the current law can be made more effective. There is a great deal of law that applies to the sector, but much of it does not work as Parliament intended. As a result, the standards set by the law are often not met, particularly in relation to the physical condition of housing. In turn, these failures contribute to the sector suffering from a poor reputation which, arguably, gets in the way of it playing as full a part as it should in providing housing.
The report recommends a programme of staged reforms based on principles of smart regulation. Following responses to our consultation paper, we propose a system of self-regulation designed to enhance voluntary initiatives already in place, leaving open the option of future reform to create a compulsory system. It is intended that implementation of our proposals would harmonise and simplify of the current system in an affordable way, with benefits to both landlords and tenants.
Background
On 13 July 2007 we published a consultation paper. A summary is available, together with the press release.
The consultation period closed on 12 October 2007.
The consultation paper surveyed the development of regulation of the privare rented sector and anlysed recent developments in regulatory theory and practice. The paper then presented provisional proposals aimed at encouraging better management of rented property.
The central proposal made in the consultation paper was for a scheme of "enforced self-regulation". Landlords would be required by law either to belong to an accredited self-regulatory organisation, or to let through an agent who is a member of an accredited agents' organisation. The self-regulatory organisations would be the existing or new national and regional landlords' associations or local authority schemes. Accreditation of organisations would be undertaken by a central regulator, which would oversee their codes of practice and disciplinary proceedings. The aim was that this scheme would replace courts and tribunals as the first port of call for disputes between landlords and tenants, and would remove incentives for landlords to keep property in poor repair (and evict tenants who object).
The paper considered, but provisionally rejected, an enhanced version of voluntary self-regulation on the one hand, and a compulsory licensing scheme on the other. As an alternative, or additional, mechanism, the paper considered property certification, like an MOT test for housing.
We also published two supplementary papers:
- Supplementary Paper 1 - gives a more detailed explanation of the law on housing conditions, harassment and unlawful eviction.
- Supplementary Paper 2 - deals in greater detail with estimating the costs of improving housing conditions.
For more information, contact the public law team or go to the team page.
NOTE - We are happy to provide information about our projects. However, we cannot give legal advice or deal with individual cases. Nor do we provide legal research to assist with student assignments. This does not affect your rights under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information.