Citizens Advice calling for National Housing Body

15:21 PM, 26th June 2019, About 5 years ago 42

Text Size

Citizens Advice has conducted a survey into the PRS and concluded renters do not receive the same level of protection as in other essential consumer markets. Click Here to view the full survey.

Therefore they are calling for a ‘National Housing Body’ to set consistent standards, providing more protection for tenants and make it easier for landlords to do their jobs. The proposed new body could be included in an existing or brand new independent institution.

However, it is proposed the focus for the body should be on:

Setting the right standards: it could implement measures to standardise and clarify standards for landlords. For example, it could develop a simplified code of practice, or standardise ‘fit and proper person’ tests. Using membership of the new landlord redress scheme, the body could develop a register of landlords and use it to regularly communicate with landlords on new and upcoming regulation. This would make it easier for landlords and tenants to know exactly where they stand.
Create consistent expectations and requirements
Proactive ongoing monitoring: a national body should proactively enforce rules. This will take the onus away from tenants to pursue enforcement actions and make it easier to access redress.
Supporting landlords to meet their obligations: this body should be a resource for landlords to turn to to answer questions, and provide feedback guidance on regulation. This way, landlords will find it easier to know what their obligations are and follow them – providing a better standard of service for tenants.

The survey found:

22% of tenants experiencing disrepair end up spending their own time or money fixing the problem.
9 in 10 tenants don’t know whether a responsibility is theirs or their landlord’s.
1 in 4 landlords were not able to correctly identify any of the potential outcomes of failing to meet their obligations towards tenants.
1 in 3 landlords find it difficult to keep up with rules and regulations.
75% of landlords agree that having a single national body responsible for standards would make their job easier

RLA policy director, David Smith, said:

“There are already well over 150 laws containing 400 regulations affecting the private rented sector. The powers are already there for councils to tackle and root out criminal landlords who cause misery for their tenants.

“What is lacking are both the will and the resources to properly use them. We fail to see how establishing a new body of this kind will help to address this.”

Share This Article

Comments

Old Mrs Landlord

10:29 AM, 2nd July 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Annie Landlord at 02/07/2019 - 09:47Ticks both boxes but not as snappy as some of the earlier suggestions. I'm out now as far as this silly diversion from the subject of the thread is concerned, time for it to get back on tract I think though it's provided welcome light relief from the generally depressive mood caused by the incessant rain of tinkering landlord legislation news.

Report Comment Reply

Old Mrs Landlord

10:37 AM, 2nd July 2019, About 5 years ago

I know this has been the longstanding position of CAB. Somewhere on here, years ago, a contributor landlord posted about his/her efforts to help a struggling tenant by contacting CAB (I think it was to see if there were any additional benefits to which T might be entitled) only to be told when the call answerer realised her status "Oh we don't talk to landlords".

Report Comment Reply

Previous 1 2 3 4 5

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

Continue with Facebook

Continue with Twitter

Username/Email Address

Password

Remember Me

Forgotten your password?

Don't have an account? Sign Up

“Account”	means an account required to access and/or use certain areas and features of Our Site;
“Cookie”	means a small text file placed on your computer or device by Our Site when you visit certain parts of Our Site and/or when you use certain features of Our Site. Details of the Cookies used by Our Site are set out in section 13, below;
“Cookie Law”	means the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003;
“personal data”	means any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to Us via Our Site. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in the EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); and
“We/Us/Our”	Means Property118 Ltd , a limited company registered in England under company number 10295964, whose registered address is 1st Floor, Woburn House, 84 St Benedicts Street, Norwich, NR2 4AB.

Name of Cookie	Purpose	Strictly Necessary
JSESSIONID	Used only to collect performance data, with any identifiable data obfuscated	No
__cfduid	This cookie is strictly necessary for Cloudflare's security features and cannot be turned off.	Yes

Name of Cookie	First / Third Party	Provider	Purpose
__utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmt, __utmz	First	Google	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website
_fbp	First	Facebook	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website