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International Law

The Landlord Law Blog

From Tessa Shepperson. Tessa, editor of www.landlordlaw.co.uk, ponders on life, the universe, and residential landlord and tenant law

Post Frequency: 1.7/day

Last Entry: November 25, 2009 at 08:47:00

New tenancy deposit case - deposit paid before 7 April 07

Posted on June 07, 2009
This is a new case reported in the excellent Legal Action Magazine, Saad v. Hogan from the Brentford County Court.Ms Hogan paid her deposit, Ł1,000, in November 2005. Her tenancy was renewed in November 2007. In June 2008 the landlord brought proceedings for possession based on the serious rent arrears ground...

Landlord licensing and agent regulation ? impact assessments now published

Posted on June 06, 2009
Those interested in the governments consultation paper issued in response to the Rugg Report, will also be interested in the impact assessments which have now been published by the Department for Communities ands Local Government . Impact assessment for regulation of LandlordsThis is available to download from here...

mytenancydeposit.co.uk - not a recognised tenancy deposit company

Posted on June 06, 2009
I, and probably many landlords and other property professionals, have received notifications from both The Deposit Protection Service and MyDeposits warning that the web-site mytenancydeposit.co.uk is not that of a government authorised tenancy deposit scheme...

Dr Ian Gibson MP

Posted on June 06, 2009
Leaving landlord and tenant law to one side for a moment, as a Norwich Citizen, I would like to make a statement in support of Dr Ian Gibson. He is, I know, a hardworking and conscientious constituency MP, who has stood up for what he believed in, and is one of the very few qualified scientists in the house...

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Landlords may become liable for tenants' water bills

Posted on June 04, 2009
According to a report in the Times today, the government is considering a report from Ofwat recommending that landlords should be made liable for water bills, if these are not paid by departing tenants,The reason for this is the high level of unpaid bills suffered by water companies...

Letting to tenants with pets

Posted on June 03, 2009
The Dogs Trust estimate that in the region of 40% of us in the UK have pets. Probably mostly dogs, cats and caged birds. As about 12-15% of the population live in rented accommodation it is fair to say that there must be many potential tenants looking for accommodation who have pets...

91% of tenants suceed at arbitration say My Deposits

Posted on June 02, 2009
A news report out by My Deposits shows that 91% of tenants get their money back at tenancy deposit arbitrations. The report states:"Figures from mydeposits.co.uk show 91 per cent of dispute cases settled by the scheme's independent adjudication service found in favour of the tenant...

The Law Bazaar

Posted on June 01, 2009
If you are looking for a lawyer, there is a new option available now. This is the Law Bazaar (reported by the Guardian here). Set up by solicitor Costas Andrea, fed up with the huge sums made by claims companies just for referring work to solicitors, this allows clients and lawyers to make contact direct...

NLA/SPLA case dismissed

Posted on May 26, 2009
No sooner do I write a post saying that a case looks to continue than I get an email telling me it has been dismissed!A news release on the NLA web-site here states:"On Thursday 21 May, His Honour Judge Pelling QC dismissed the legal challenges to the merger...

Landlord Licensing - tell the government your views!

Posted on May 26, 2009
The Government recently published their response to the Rugg Review, which was reported by me here. In particular the report proposed mandatory licensing for landlords and regulation for all letting agents. The report is also a consultation. As before with important consultations, I have prepared an online answerform to allow people to give their views easily...

SPLA/NLA merger dispute continues

Posted on May 23, 2009
Landlords and property professionals will have been depressed to read an article by Oliver Romain in the excellent Landlord & Buy to Let Magazine, that the legal action brought challenging the merger of the Southern Private Landlords Association (formerly the National Federation of Residential Landlords) with the National Landlords Association, announced last year (and reported in this blog here) it still continuing...

Landlords out of pocket for deposits - DPS may be best after all!

Posted on May 22, 2009
A report published in The Times today highlights the growing problem of landlords having to pay up for deposits, when agents go bust.Under the two 'insurance based' tenancy deposit schemes (MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme run by the Dispute Service) if the agent deals with the deposit on behalf of the landlord, the agent holds the deposit money...

CAB report highlights unfair charges to tenants by letting agents

Posted on May 21, 2009
An item on the BBC news site has alerted me to a new report from the Citizens Advice Bureau on fees to tenants by letting agents. The report comments that many letting agents are regularly making unjustified charges to tenants for "tasks that are no more than the routine business of letting and managing a property" (and sometimes for items they are also charging to landlords)...

Pain Smith on Foxtons

Posted on May 21, 2009
I just wanted to draw your attention to an excellent post from the Pain Smith blog here on the Foxtons case. This points out that nothing is decided yet, and nothing may be finally decided for quite some time if the case goes to the Court of Appeal.Pain Smith also point out that this case will just be about Foxton's terms and conditions...

What I can't understand about the MP's expense accounts scandal is this ..

Posted on May 17, 2009
Why didn't they see it coming? Surely it must have been obvious after the Freedom of Information Act was passed in 2000 that something like this was going to happen sometime? Surely anyone with any sense would have known that the prurient press were going to probe at some stage, and would have taken care to be careful...

A lady at lunch

Posted on May 15, 2009
Had a great time with Graham and Karen on Radio Norfolk today - they invited me to be one of their Friday ?ladies at lunch? which was huge fun. My co ladies were Pam Brooks aka Kate Hardy (in black in the photo), novelist; and Sara Lock (in turquoise), all round good egg who has been on cash in the attic (and who went to school with the fabulous Joanna Lumley)...

Government officer rejects offer to help the public respond to consultation

Posted on May 15, 2009
Well, that was a bit of a blow. As you know from my previous post the government (the Communities and Local Government Department) have published a response to the Rugg report which is also a consultation. In the past I have assisted the Law Commission, and also the Civil Justice Council, when they have been consulting landlords and property professionals regarding their proposals, by putting an answerform online to allow people to answer easily...

The Rugg Report ? the governments response

Posted on May 14, 2009
The government published a consultation paper yesterday in response to the recent Rugg Report and the other various reports that have been published over the past few years.Supporters of the Law Commissions long project and reports, will be pleased to see that this is acknowledged and referred to in the response which confirms that many of the Law Commission?s ideas are being considered...

Susskind - the end of lawyers?

Posted on May 14, 2009
I have just listened to an interesting webcast of an interview of Richard Susskind here. Susskind is promoting his new book, The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the nature of legal services, having written several groundbreaking books on the use of IT and technology in the internet in the past...

Four more cases on possession proceedings

Posted on May 12, 2009
There are four interesting cases in the most recent edition of Legal Action Magazine on proceedings for possession under section 21 and the provisions of the Housing Act 2004, so I hasten to share them with you. They all cover different points. Although they are all County Court decisions and therefore not binding on other Judges, they show how Judges are thinking and interpreting the statute...

Starlight Children's Foundation - Charity of the Month (May 2009)

Posted on May 12, 2009
The Starlight Children's Foundation aims to brighten the lives of seriously and terminally ill children by granting their wishes and providing hospital entertainment to help take their minds off the pain, fear and isolation of their illness.It is also the charity being supported by employment barrister Daniel Bartlett for his ten year anniverary fundraising campaign...

NLA calls for changes in housing benefit/local housing allowance rules

Posted on May 09, 2009
The National Landlords Association (NLA) has recently started a campaign to change the rules for the payment of housing benefit/local housing allowance (LHA). As has been described elsewhere in this blog, LHA cannot normally be paid direct to the landlord in the way that housing benefit was...

LHA direct payment e-petition

Posted on May 09, 2009
After my earlier post giving details of an e-petition against the governments licensing plans, I have now learned of another one here requesting Local Housing Allowance be paid direct to landlords.Petitions seem to be taking off - it is a shame therefore that the government is no longer supporting them, according to this report on the parliament...

e-petition against landlord licensing

Posted on May 08, 2009
I have been informed that an e petition to No 10 has now been posted by Mark Horne of Property Hawk. The reasons on the petition areMandatory licensing would: 1. Undermine the private property rights of a citizen to do what they choose with their property including letting it to a willing tenant...

Fast Facts on new licensing plans

Posted on May 07, 2009
The Times in an article today has listed six 'fast facts' on the new licensing plans which are expected to be announced formally in a new Green Paper shortly. They are as follows:A new licence-to-let which is expected to cost landlords Ł50An independent body which will mediate in disputes between landlords and tenantsA government agency which will find new homes for affected tenantsLandlords who flout basic accommodation standards to be banning from lettingA national watchdog to monitor all lettings agentsA lettings register which will name all agents who have signed up to ARLA industry guidelinesIt will be interesting to see how correct these are when the green paper is finally published,

New plans for landlords

Posted on May 05, 2009
Two reports in the press this morning on landlord regulation. The Times reports that ministers are considering introducing licensing (as recommended last year by the Rugg Report). They anticipate that the costs will be covered by the licensing fee, provisionally put at Ł50, plus there is also a suggestion that the scheme will help the revenue track tax evasion...

Advice for landlords whose tenants are not paying rent

Posted on May 02, 2009
A report on the BBC web-site today states that more tenants are in arrears of rent now than since the late 1980's. Which is not surprising given the almost daily announcements of redundancies.Here is a bit of advice for landlords:Keep on top of things and contact tenants as soon as they fall into arrearsBe sympathetic to tenants who respond to you, and consider reducing the rent if they are geninely in financial difficulties through no fault of their ownIf tenants are on housing benefit/Local Housing Allowance, tell the benefit office - they should make payment direct to you if the arrears reach 8 weeks However if tenants have not responded when the arrears reach 2 months worth, serve a section 8 notice and consider issuing proceedings for possession...

Good for the Ghurkhas!

Posted on May 02, 2009
If I may go 'off topic' for a moment, I would like to say how pleased I am at the MPs recent vote which hopefully will result in Ghurkha veterans being allowed to live in this country. Maybe it will cost a bit. However if we can chuck billions at bankers who have almost brought the worlds financial system crashing down, surely we can spare a bit for some respected soldiers who have put their lives on the line for this country? And good for Joanna Lumley for all the work she has done for this cause.

Landlord registration scheme in Scotland not working, says Shelter

Posted on April 30, 2009
According to a report on the Shelter Scotland web-site, one in four rented properties in Scotland is not covered by the Scottish registration scheme, which came into force three years ago today. It is not all bad news. The report says that the registration scheme has been an impetus to set up landlord training and advice services...

Power down plugs

Posted on April 30, 2009
Our son brought back a number of E-on power down plugs the other day from school, and tonight I decided to fit one to my computer It was not nearly as simple as it appears on the box, in fact it was rather a difficult job. After bits of my computer got burnt out by a lightining strike a few years ago (I was lucky not to lose my hard drive) I now put everything, including telephone lines, through a big surge protector...

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