We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new landlords and letting agents community. It includes a forum for landlords to discuss matters but it’s much more than just another forum. Landlords or agents can follow others, start conversations with people they choose and generally use the community as a meeting spot for like minded people. There are two sections, one is for any landlord or agent completely free of charge and the...

2 April 2012: – This article should be read as though the date is on or after 6 April 2012. What legislation governs the requirement of an energy performance certificate? The Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 When does providing an energy performance certificate by a landlord come into force? 1st October 2008 for residential dwellings. 6th April 2008 for commercial...

Firstly, happy new year to everyone! We’ve been a little quiet during the first week of 2011 because we have lots of cases that were started at the back end of last year and are all coming together right now. Hopefully things will calm down soon! Most of these case aren’t particularly interesting but this one I thought worthy of a quick report. Philpott v Isaac Torquay & Newton Abbot County Court 0TQ01606 7 January...

Please note: if any case is on or after 6 April / 6 May 2012 this may not be reliable although some parts should remain useful. Thanks to Painsmith blog for bringing this to everyone’s attention. Draycott v Hannells Lettings Ltd [2010] EWHC 217 (QB) At the time of writing this article, this is the first binding decision on tenancy deposit schemes so is of significant importance. It would seem to agree with what we and many commentators...

A problem for student lettings with the tenancy deposit legislation is that the deposit is often taken by the landlord in January, yet the tenancy often won’t commence until between June and September. It seems a shame to have to protect the deposit during this period. Also, many students are the same tenants from the previous year so the deposit is actually still in relation to the previous tenancy and not for the new one to take effect...