Keys Letting Centre

The Law

We will regularly update this section with news

About letting and the law

Energy Performance Certificates (Written 1st May 2012)

Since April 6th 2012 the law relating to these has changed. EPCs have to be in place within 7 days of the property being marketed and the first page must be included in written details specific to the property in question. The whole report must be made available to prospective tenants at the earliest opportunity. Reports compiled since 6/04/12 now cover a three year period and contain details of the "Green Deal". (Yes, you do get fined if you not comply. As this is a criminal matter, not a civil one, you get a criminal record of course.)

Green Deal?

Tenants can, after studying the EPC, request work doing that is covered by the Green Deal which improves the energy efficiency of the property. It is estimated what the saving is in terms of bill reduction. A special meter is fitted which shows the saving but this saving is added to the bill so that the financial cost remains what it was before the work was carried out. The cost of the work is in fact a loan paid back through the fuel bill. The Landlord has no costs to cover.

Future tenants have to continue with the scheme on the same meter and in fact make no financial savings but may be happy in the knowledge they are saving the planet.

Health & Safety

There are, of course, regulations about the need for landlords or their agents to conduct "Risk Assessments" of their properties. Although there is obviously a need to be sensible when offering a property to let to make sure that it is safe, it seems the law may take a less than sensible view.

A sensible view, for example, would be that upper windows which might be readily accessible to children are lockable and that keys are provided and that any pools in gardens are covered with sturdy grids (better not to have them in the first place!) or that fireguards are provided where there is a real fireplace, etc. Although these in the past would have been considered the sort of things that normal people would think through for themselves, it seems that the state now considers us all as children who need guidance, supervision and protection from cradle to grave.

It is worrying that the more stupid aspects of Health & Safety are now impinging on the rental sector. As a result we are recommending that owners consider an assessment of their properties if only to guard themselves against malicious prosecution by disputatious tenants or officious local councils (not to mention some judges who would struggle in the world normal people live in).

For some time we have laughed at manufacturers who put instructions on their micro-waves to the effect that cats should not be dried in them or who put on packets of nuts the legend: "May contain nuts". Now we know why. They do not think we are stupid; the government think we are stupid and will fine or imprison us if we do not toe the line.

SO........

When compiling new inventories we will include a section at the end where we draw attention to possible risks even when these may be of risk only to the dimmest of people. As compiling inventories is now very time consuming we are having to charge for new inventories of managed properties. Owners wishing to compile a risk assessment of existing rentals can arrange these through us at a cost to be agreed.

The law doesn't remain the same for long. Letting of houses is subject to a constant fine tuning of law.

See new section on Tenants' Deposits by clicking on the Latest News link.

This is very important especially for private landlords. Failure to observe the law in this respect could cost you a great deal of money and land you in court.

It is almost certainly the case that most tenancy agreements in use today will have potentially serious faults in them because the law has moved on since they were drafted.

If tested in court owners could find the tenancy agreement they have relied on is full of holes. The tenancy agreement is, after all, an insurance policy of sorts. You probably won't need to go to law over it. But if you do and parts of it are no longer valid you could find yourself considerably out of pocket and extremely inconvenienced.

We will give one example: most policies contain the clause "No sub-letting". The latest legal advice that we have received is that any clauses so phrased in a tenancy agreement will be ruled un-enforceable. In other words, if a tenant sub-lets, that is leaves the property and lets the house to another person unknown to you, you may not be able to get a court to rule this action illegal.

This is a serious matter for most owners.

There is a way to ensure your tenancy agreement is enforceable in a court of law and ours has been recently amended to take note of the latest changes in the law.

We offer owners what we believe to be an invaluable service: we will draw up your tenancy documentation based on our tenancy agreement which is constantly up-dated to take account of changes in the law. The charge for this is £60.00 plus VAT.

Why carry on using out of date agreements some tenants might drive a coach and horses through ? (After all, you would hardly be happy if your house insurance was shot full of holes !)

Keys Letting Centre - Letting Agents