The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has published new guidance for landlords and tenants.
The government published the guidance earlier this month to ensure that landlords and tenants understand and fulfil their respective rights and responsibilities. Rental issues can arise on both sides, but the aim of the guidance is to help address such issues by clearly setting out the rights and responsibilities of the landlord and tenant respectively and the consequence of breaching any requirement. This is one of a number of new guidance documents being produced by the MHCLG for the private rental sector in order to assist landlords, tenants, and local authorities.
The guide is some 26 pages long and includes a section for tenants and a section for landlords. The outline contents of the guidance for landlords is set out below.
The guidance advises landlords of their licensing obligations and explains mandatory, additional and selective licensing. The following section explains how a landlord should get a property ready for rental and the legal requirements to be met including gas safety checks and the provisions of Energy Performance Certificates.
The guidance then includes information on a landlord’s continuing responsibilities such as maintaining a property’s structural integrity and the annual gas safety checks. The guidance also includes information about ending a tenancy. Matters such as tenant issues including what constitutes harassment and the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and how to legally evict a tenant is also addressed. Finally, the guide includes details about the Tenant Fees Act coming into force on 1 June and Banning Orders and the Rogue Landlords database.
Comment
Whilst we hope that those in the Private Rental Sector are familiar with most of the information in this guide it is still worth a read and certainly worth keeping as a reference point. It is quick and easy to navigate and can be useful in the event of a rental issue.
Published 24 April 2019
