Landlord Redress Scheme
The Bill is set to introduce the Landlord Redress Scheme. In brief, this will be a free scheme available for tenants who need to raise complaints against their landlord.
The schemes aim is to ‘provide for a complaint made by or on behalf of a prospective, current or former residential tenant against a member of the scheme to be independently investigated and determined by an independent individual’.
It is expected that the Landlord Redress Scheme will be run by the current Housing Ombudsman. Any complaints made by prospective, current, or former tenants will be dealt with using the redress scheme and, any decisions made by the Ombudsman may be enforceable as if they were a court order and/or subject to a rent repayment order.
The scheme can only be used by tenants however, there is a possibility of a mediation service being introduced as part of the scheme that can be used by landlords.
Once the Bill comes into force, all landlords will need to have joined the scheme before they are able to advertise a property to be let.
The PRS Database
The database is something that is due to go live following the introduction of the Bill. This is a database that all landlords will be required to join before they let a property – if a landlord is not registered on the database, they will be prevented from marketing their property to be let.
It is suspected that access to join the database will be released to landlords in stages. Once registered, each landlord will be given their own unique identifier.
The database will include entries/information from landlords regarding all their properties which are let and/or intended to be let under residential tenancies. These entries must include copies of the property’s safety certificates i.e., gas certificates, energy performance certificates, electrical installation condition reports and any licence the property is subject to. There is an obligation on landlords to ensure that these documents are kept up to date on the database.
It is suspected that there will be a charge for landlords to join the database however, the cost of this is currently unknown.
Failure to Comply
Landlords who fail to join the redress scheme or database can be fined up to £7,000 by the Local Authority and in most cases, will be unable to seek possession of their property should it be tenanted.
Should you need any further advice on landlord and tenant law or advice please contact our specialist solicitors on 0161 696 6170 or complete our online enquiry form.
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