Joint Dispute Resolution Advice
The three tenancy deposit schemes have jointly published a ‘Guide to Tenancy Deposits, Disputes and Damages‘ The new guide outlines the principles on which all three scheme administrator’s adjudicators make decisions so that the process is consistent and transparent...
Sprinklers Required in Wales
From 7 April 2011, all residential properties in Wales that are new build or converted after this date are required to have an automatic fire suppression system installed (sprinkler system). The legislation bringing in this requirement is the Domestic Fire Safety...
Direct Payment Guidance
The Department of Work and Pensions (“DWP”) have published housing benefit circular HB/CTB A4/2011 which advises local authority staff on how to make decisions under the new direct payment provisions which commence in April 2011. What’s changing? From 6 April 2011,...
Protecting a Deposit AFTER Tenancy Ended
Please note: for cases after 6 April / 6 May 2012 this can no longer be relied upon Nearly Legal have reported an interesting new tenancy deposit case Gemma Shepley v Majid Yassen, Tameside County Court, Thursday 13th January 2011 (Unreported). As a brief...
Section 21 Expired Before 6 Months
Please see our article on recent council tax rules which will assist with deciding what length of fixed term to give. 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...
Direct Payment Set to Return?
The Housing Benefit (Amendment) Regulations 2010 amend the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 from 1 April 2011. It mostly contains the changes needed for the recent budget changes (capping of rates, 30 percentile of rents etc.) but it also re-introduces direct payments...
Wrong advice on the LHA
Complaint reference 09003325 The London Borough of Newham gave wrong advice to a woman about local housing allowance (LHA), leaving her with rent arrears. The Ombudsman said: “Both [the complainant] and her landlord sought specific advice from the Council regarding...
Direct Payment Update
One of the key issues of the moment is the removal of direct payment of housing benefit to landlords unless the tenant is eight weeks or more in arrears. However, in the Department of Work and Pensions December monthly update to local authority staff called Housing...
Summary of HB Changes April 2011
In the December issue of Housing Benefit Direct (a monthly newsletter issued by the Department of Work and Pensions to local authority staff) they have provided a useful summary of the changes to housing benefit and when they will be implemented. Amendments to Housing...
Legislation Achieves Primary Objective
Please note: for cases after 6 April / 6 May 2012 this can no longer be relied upon The wait is over for the Court of Appeal ruling in Tiensia v Vision Enterprises Ltd (t/a Universal Estates) and between Honeysuckle Properties v Fletcher [2010] EWCA Civ 1224...
The Dispute Service changes
This article is only relevant to you if you are a member of the tenancy deposit scheme operated by the Dispute Service Ltd. Essentially the changes to the scheme rules and tenancy requirements apply from 1 October 2010 when the threshold increases to £100,000 for when...
Deposit Protection after 1 October
The DCLG were insisting that all deposits required protecting within 14 days of 1 October 2010 for tenancies that convert to assured shorthold tenancies after the rent threshold increase. However it is being widely reported that they have revised their position after...
AST Threshold to Increase £100k
What's changing? From 1st October 2010, the rent threshold for when a tenancy is an assured or assured shorthold will be increased from £25,000 to £100,000. The legislation making this change is here. From 1 December 2011, the same increase takes effect in Wales...
Grant Shapps: Sensible approach to manage shared homes
Landlords and councils will no longer be faced with bureaucracy aimed at micro-managing rented housing, Housing Minister Grant Shapps confirmed today. The Minister laid new regulations that could cut as many as 8,500 planning applications from the system, freeing up...
Missing Prescribed Information
Baafi v Mapp Central London County Court 24 June 2010 The landlord had served a section 21 notice and commenced possession proceedings. The claim was defended by the tenant on the basis that the prescribed information required by the The Housing (Tenancy Deposits)...
A New Direct Payment Issue
The Department of Work and Pensions ("DWP") has issued new guidance to local authority staff for local housing allowance. In the guidance, a new point is raised concerning direct payments to landlords when the tenant is the equivalent of eight weeks or more in...
New Legislation Website
A new website has been launched http://www.legislation.gov.uk. This website hopes (in time) to provide fully revised versions of legislation which can be a difficult to obtain without spending large amounts of money on subscription based services (like we do). The...
Failure to Comply with Initial Requirements
Paula O’Brien v Jacqueline Jones & Andrew Alexander (T/A Belvoir Huntingdon). Northampton County Court, Claim No 9KG00335 12/02/2010 This case raises an interesting and important point regarding compliance with the initial requirements of a tenancy deposit scheme....
Couple of Interesting Cases
A quick blog entry to let you know of a couple of interesting cases we are currently dealing with. One of them is only potential at the moment. (1) We are now going to appeal on a housing benefit issue where the landlord increased the rent and the tenant was receiving...
Water Charges
The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 makes significant changes to who is liable to pay water bills. In particular it will affect property owners. What's changing? The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 adds a new section 144C to the Water Industry Act 1991 [s.45...
Coronavirus Guidance
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