So…. We’re deregulated now!

Tenancy deposits, and the adherence to the rules thereof, remains a headline topic these days. It can be a minefield! Anyone who’s heard someone talk sensibly will have heard of the “Superstrike vs Rodrigues” Case. What? Ah yes, that one…

In a nutshell if the tenancy started before April 2007 (when all these laws came into force) so the deposit wasn't protected. What happened was the court ruled the deposit should have been protected when the tenancy renewed. The court had, at the time, interpreted this as a new tenancy. Rightly or wrongly at the time, this had massive implications on every tenancy that was holding over or renewed by means of fixed term extension in the whole country! Every landlord for every running tenancy would have had to reserve the “prescribed information” (set of particulars to confirm certain details like who the landlord is and where the deposit is kept etc) upon each renewal. So every 6 or 12 months, however long the extension was for, or upon the fixed term lapsing and it becoming a statutory periodic tenancy.

“So what?” I hear you thinking… well here’s what – if you didn’t comply with these regulations to reserve the prescribed information bits and pieces you wouldn’t be able to serve S21 notice on the tenants (so you can’t make them move out). What’s worse is the tenants could sue mr. landlord for 3x the deposit amount because, even if it was registered correctly at the time of the tenancy starting, if the prescribed information wasn’t reserved it all went out the window…

"NIGHTMARE" I hear you say... Thank goodness for the Deregulation Act 2015 which fixes all these things, and then some. Read all 250plus pages of glory here if you like: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/20/pdfs/ukpga_20150020_en.pdf. To be fair only 20 points out of the 116 relate to property, but that’s still a lot to take in.

Or allow me to summarise:

• New Section 21 Notice - There will be a new prescribed notice available from this date onwards.  You will be able to download it from the Court website.
• If there is no Energy Performance Certificate or valid Gas Safety Certificate on the property, a landlord will not be able to serve a Section 21 Notice until this is rectified.  
• To prevent a landlord evicting a tenant who has complained about the condition/disrepair of the property, a landlord will no longer be able to serve a section 21 notice if the tenant has previously complained about the state of repair.
• Landlords are not under obligation to re-serve the PI nor re-register the deposit upon every renewal of tenancy or change from fixed term to statutory periodic at present.

So, all in all good changes for good landlords!

Remember if you want to talk property or run a new purchase by me please do so: I’m on 020 3637 4474 or email: jeroen@claphampropertyblog.com.