Legislation affecting Belvoir fees

This is possibly a piece of legislation that is borne in mind by us most often, but for which there is little or any recognition by anyone but local council enforcement officers.

Local authorities use this, when appropriate, in order to censure landlords who are not providing safe accommodation for their tenants. We effectively have to risk-assess every property, highlight areas of concern and have the necessary remedial action carried out. However, simply saying that a property is risk-assessed is possibly to devalue the efforts involved. There are a variety of sub-sections of the assessment:

Physiological – damp, mould, property temperature, Asbestos, biocides, Carbon Monoxide and combustion products, lead, radiation, uncombusted fuels, gas and volatile organic compounds fall into this category.

Mould, and property temperature are probably the issues most often investigated by us with mould being perhaps the biggest single problem we encounter regularly in our properties.

At check-in all our tenants are provided with information to assist in the identification of mould and how to rectify any problem. They also have to sign an acknowledgement of its receipt. We also provide reminders and more detailed advice when required.

Sometimes despite our best endeavours, mould becomes a problem. A tenant invariably blames the property and a landlord often suggests that it is the tenant’s lifestyle which is the root cause. Very often, it turns out to be a combination of the two, with loft-space ventilation or insulation and other similar property issues playing a part. We have a very good contractor who we call upon when we need definitive proof and by following his advice we invariably eliminate the problem, but finding a resolution is often a very labour intensive process.

Psychological – Crowding / space, possible entry by intruders, lighting and noise fall into this category. Window locks, patio door locks and entrance or hallway lighting are the areas we are most often concerned with.

Infection – Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse, food safety, personal hygiene, sanitation and drainage and the water supply are among the issues covered by this category.

Accidents – Falls associated with baths/showers, falling on level surfaces, falling on steps, falling between levels, electrical hazards, fire, flame, hot surfaces, collision and entrapment, explosions, position and operability of amenities and structural collapse/failings are covered in this section.

We spend a lot of time advising landlords about the need for stair banisters in particular and their correct spacing to adhere to building regulations.

Even where we are assessing for issues we do not come across, we need to be aware of the areas of concern. Such awareness requires continual ongoing training, in order to keep abreast of legislation.

A property is obviously assessed at the point in which we list it, but continual assessment is required since a property may deteriorate, or a tenant’s behaviour my affect the safety at a property. As a result, all staff involved in taking on, conducting viewings and carrying out periodic visits need to be aware of all the various issues.

Full details may be found here.

The number of tenancy dilapidation disputes has more than doubled in the last 10 years. This isn’t so much because tenants are leaving properties in a worse state than they were, so much as a better understanding by tenants of their rights and a belief that they can argue their case regarding any claim. It costs a tenant absolutely nothing to disagree with a proposed deduction from his deposit and, since tenants consider that they have nothing to lose by arguing over deductions, an ever-increasing number do so, either to be bloody-minded, or in the vain hope that they might be successful, despite the condition in which they left the property. All such claims and counter claims are time-sensitive. There are strict timescales within which we need to collate everything and this means allocating staff solely to this task.

Quite rightly, a deposit is deemed to be the tenant’s and there is an increasing burden of proof required in order to successfully make a claim against a deposit. We conduct all our inventories, periodic checks and check-outs in house to maintain standards, in order that we are in the strongest possible position when it comes to arguing the landlord’s case. Elsewhere, you might read that independent inventories are best, since nobody is then deemed to be biased towards the landlord. In a perfect world, this might be true, but in our experience, inventory sub-contractors simply want to finish a task and get paid for it; they aren’t financially tied to the outcome of a dispute and don’t really take proper ownership of a property and its potential problems. Since we are intrinsically linked to the whole process, it is in our interests to ensure that reports are as accurate as possible and if very occasionally we get it wrong, we are prepared to rectify things at our own expense. We might not be pleased and we would certainly seek to learn from the problem, but we have far more chance of preventing future repetition when it is caused by a report made by our own member of staff.

Every single claim no matter how small involves collating much of this information; copies of the tenancy agreement, copies of the inventory, periodic visit reports, check-out report, estimates and invoices, photographic evidence and whatever else may be required, including correspondence between the parties, to build a case for submission to the Alternative Dispute Resolution Service (ADR),or when necessary, the courts. The actual submission requires written statements and can run to many pages and in complex cases, can take in excess of an entire day’s effort. In the past year, it has cost us many thousands of pounds in pursuing claims on behalf of our landlords. Check-outs, deposit deductions and negotiations account for nearly one and a half members of staff. Quite apart from the time and effort, there are considerable printing and postage costs to be taken into consideration.

All Belvoir staff involved in inventory preparation, periodic visits and check-outs attend regular training with The DPS and other external bodies, to ensure that they are kept up to date with the often complex changes as they take place. We have a particularly good track record of providing evidence which results in claims being upheld. In November 2018, we were successful in claiming an entire deposit in excess of £1600. Without our systems, training and detailed application, we would be far less successful in defending claims on behalf of our landlords. It is worth noting that many agents use sub-contractors to compile their reports and the deposit is often then dealt with by a call-centre. We know that their success rate is significantly less than ours, since landlords often come to us as a result of their disenchantment with such an agent.

You may find DPS dispute details here.

Whilst only minor, yet more systems have been introduced to ensure adherence to legislation. This involves ensuring and getting a tenant to witness (and sign for the fact at check-in) that detectors are in place where applicable and working and ensuring that they are tested on periodic visits. It also means changes to our systems, such that these checks may be accurately logged. Failure to comply with this legislation carries a potential fine of £5,000.

This guide now needs to be supplied at the earliest possible opportunity to all applicants. Failure to do so invalidates any subsequent Section 21 Notice (The Notice required when a landlord is seeking to end an Assured Shorthold Tenancy). The issuing of these guides must be recorded in case evidence is required at a later date. There is also a need to monitor government changes to this publication. There were two changes in one month in the summer of 2018, so it is vitally important that a weather eye is kept on this matter.

In addition to the Prescribed Information regarding deposits, we now need to issue a separate raft of Prescribed Information to tenants in order to ensure that Section 21 Notices may be correctly served. These documents need to be issued to the applicant at specific stages of the application process and evidence obtained to be able to prove their receipt and acceptance.

The cost of doing this properly cannot be over-emphasised. It is not simply a case of realising that this wasn’t done in a timely manner and serving the information prior to serving the notice. If it isn’t dealt with correctly, then a tenant cannot be evicted unless he is in breach of the tenancy agreement, or until such time as he elects to leave of his own volition. And a breach isn’t necessarily sufficient; some grounds for eviction remain discretionary and attempting to regain possession on some grounds is reliant upon the opinion of the court on any particular day.

Here are details of a case where part of the prescribed information was not provided prior to the start of a tenancy. On this occasion, it was a gas safety certificate, but it could just as easily have been any of the prescribed information required.  Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz (Feb 2018)

Closely associated with the EPC, this is something which is just beginning to affect the running of our portfolio. Properties with lower ratings need attention and tenants now have the right to request improvements under certain circumstances. Even if we are not currently involved in this with a particular property, it is an area where training has been necessary and where we are expected to be able to advise both landlords and tenants alike.

Since many of the tenancies we manage are in properties let prior to the legislation, we are having to carry out an audit of all our portfolio. Those without EPC’s need to have them arranged and then any of those, or indeed any of those already having an EPC rated at F or worse, need to have works carried out in order to bring them up to the minimum accepted E rating before they are able to be advertised for re-let.  This is an arduous task and is not limited simply to very old dilapidated buildings. There are very many relatively new properties which fall short and as legislation is further tightened, there will be additional burdens on agents and landlords.

Details may be found here.

Periodically, we hold Landlord’s evenings. We hold presentations on all manner of lettings topics, from legislative changes to practical tenancy management issues. We generally also have presentations from eternal speakers on issues such as Wealth Management, Landlord Insurance products or information on the lettings market in general, locally and nationally. If you would like to register your interest in our next evening, please email mike.jones@belvoir.co.uk