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The government is ‘not that bothered’ about helping BTL landlords, claims NLA

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has expressed its disappointment at the government’s decision not to address a major ruling that is of crucial importance to all landlords of assured shorthold tenants.

A recent County Court decision in Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz ruled that a landlord who had failed to issue a gas safety certificate to an assured shorthold tenant prior to moving in could never rely on a Section 21 Notice as a means of ending the tenancy and recovering possession.

According to the ruling, which applies a strict interpretation to the wording of the original Gas Safety Regulations, issuing a gas safety certificate after the tenancy has begun would not be sufficient for the landlord to meet the requirements of the Deregulation Act 2015, which applies in England only.

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But despite the lobbying the government for change, the NLA says that it has now been told by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) that it does not intent to address the Monty Shooltz ruling to help the thousands of landlords who may have inadvertently granted assured tenancies instead of the assured shorthold tenancies they meant to.

Instead, the MHCLG says that it will update the guidance available to landlords on the Gov.uk website, to ensure landlords are certain of their legal responsibilities.

NLA chief executive officer Richard Lambert said: “Having pressed the government to respond to this judgement for nearly a year, their answer seems to be, ’We’re not that bothered’.

“The Ministry clearly doesn’t understand the impact it is having.  The NLA Advice Line is taking more and more calls from landlords who thought they had complied with the law and now find themselves facing a disproportionate penalty for an administrative error.  We cannot believe this is what Parliament actually intended.

“The NLA recognises the vital importance of ensuring landlords arrange an annual gas safety check with a Gas Safe engineer. But we do not support the de facto introduction of assured tenancies because landlords cannot rectify an unwitting error made before a tenancy begins.

“We have no intention of letting this rest and will continue to lobby for change.”

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Poll: Should the government address the Monty Shooltz ruling?

PLACE YOUR VOTE BELOW

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    its a very odd place that we currently live in, in one breath the Government wants SME's to do well and they talk about investments here and there, then they give money to the their old school networks, those connected with Universities which have a dismal record of success, they then do everything they can to destroy the Buy to let market place, A market where the normal people can actually make a difference to their lives and to others. so it would appear that they only actually want their own kind, those who are in their sphere of influence to do well...i truly never felt this until now after 30 years of being in business. I may for the very first time not vote Conservative ever again, i cancelled my membership last year because of the Landlord changes and this ruling just adds to my determination to never support them again. they have completely lost the way...

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    I don't disagree but shudder at the thought of any alternative government's potential treatment of landlords. Look at the harm the SNP have done to landlords and tenants in Scotland!

     
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    As Robert intimates, If Conservative voters decided to support Labour, who are the only other party to have a likely chance of winning an election, then we would all be doomed.
    Imagine what lasting damage that commie John McDonnell could inflict upon us?
    Landlords probably stand for everything the Labour Party hates about private enterprise, so don't expect anything good to come out of this if they are elected.

     
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    The reason is most non landlords dont see private landlords as businesses, ie producing something of worth, more opportunists that at the drop of a section 21 can ruin someones life and make them potentially homeless often through no fault of their own, ie a landlords justs want it back for whatever reason

     
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    David there are a lot of business that produce nothing of value, solicitors spring to mind

     
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    Batton down the hatches look after your own u are not getting any help from these over privelged parasites who are only interested in looking after their own I’m afraid.

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    We have to look out for ourselves, every time the government hit us landlords they are in fact hurting the tenant and the homeless, but they are too thick to see that.

  • James B

    Government won’t be interested in sorting that out as it’s one more angle that keeps tenants in a property and blocks evictions.. they could not care less if the landlord should rightfully have a property back .. the more evictions blocked the less head to the council waiting lists

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    I agree thats why the prs sector needs to go, as a renter wants the option to stay as long as they want, I suggest the govt borrows and buys or builds the homes so they become the only landlords in the country, no one can compete with the govt as they borrow for less and dont tax themselves so its a win win for renters and the benefits bill and more importantly relieves landlords of the burden of renting homes, job done

     
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    David central and local government make terrible property developers, and terrible landlords, Norwich City Council being a prime example here

     
  • Ian Oliver

    When it comes to the housing market the Conservatives throw away any belief in the free market and go instead for the divisive vote-farming of identity politics.
    Housing shortage is due to the government's planning controls and high net immigration. But they don't want to tackle that, so blame the landlords instead, encourage tenant dissatisfaction and claim tenant votes.
    The common people are supposed to be dependent on, and grateful to, the big State politicians for everything. It is all part of the depressing and doomed slide towards cultural Marxism. But we landlords are actually doing the work of housing people.

    James B

    Correct

     
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    The government have orchestrated Dismal quality legislation in the PRS, ranging from the Deposits debacle, the How to Rent checklist ( they had to Revise three times in one one week ) and the Deregulation Act., More recently, the Room sizes that they've issued a 'Guidance Note on and Local Authority Advice, - to contradict and put 'right' Illegal discrimination for which they legislated !
    - but ' Where's the motivation for them to amend this situation. ( Gas cert - Sec 21 ? )

    Nowhere, is the answer, there are so many tenant quango's - so called charities [ No Shelter ] that the Government actually Fund with Tax payers money, calling for the abolition of Sec 21, there's hardly appetite for Govt to put straight their own failings ( They'd have a lot of work to do ! )

    Whoever MHCLG is paying to write PRS legislation, they should 'sack-em' !

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    ... The more Sec 21, or any other evictions, for that matter, the more cost to local authorities to house the defaulting Tenants.
    You can see it makes 'financial sense' to Local - central government to impose as much legislation, with as many loopholes as possible ( keeps the legal profession in work ) so that Rent defaulting tenants are housed 'free' - well, at Private sector landlord expense, rather than Local Authority temporary accommodation.
    LHA Benefit caps, and UC are contributing massively to the Homelessness issue that Govt say, they're trying to address. - Who are they kidding. Govt make legislation that increases Homelessness and says its trying to reduce it.
    Don't believe all you hear. !

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    Ive never defaulted and through bad luck every landlord has sold or moved back in, millions of us over a given time span have been forced to move at our expense and often time and time again and for that reason many of us dont like the industry or whatever you call it one bit

     
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    David, I have no reason not to believe you, but it would seem you have been incredibly unlucky

     
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    I Was working with a local council on PRS strategy and joint working till homeless came along now it's all about that and forget working with PRS locally...
    They just can't see without the PRS, they have no where to go as landlords continue to sell up, homeless grows and the bills for temporary accommodation shoot up.
    In Coventry homelessness bill has gone from £1.2m too £4.3m in a short time, section 24 maybe?

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    Who is writing the legislation ? That will probably be University of York centre of Government Housing Policy’s, they don’t live in the real world.

  • Suzy OShea

    For many years it was a legal obligation to dispaly the current Gas Safety Certificate on a notice board in the property. When did this legal obligation change to issuing it with the tenancy agreement and the 'How To Rent' booklet?

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    • 04 July 2019 11:04 AM

    This ridiculous Govt though not as ridiculous as a Labour Govt would be are hellbent on ensuring LL suffer the losses caused by rent defaulting tenants.
    I do wonder if the Treasury had worked out yet that such a policy actually results in £9 billion of losses per year.
    Such losses mean that there is less taxable income.
    So while LL are paying for feckless tenants to have free housing until evicted it is central Govt that is losing out on massive revenues from LL.
    Why Govt can't work this out beats me!

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    Probably have worked it out? , like they worked out non payment of Pension for a further 6 years meaning they have nicked £43k of women who contributed into same pot as men. This has affected over 3 million women. Yes they know what there doing!

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    On General Elections voting day, remember all these Laws being changed by the Govt. to disempower PRS Landlords.
    Conservatives are not bothered with empowering LL’s to reduce homelessness, Labour and Lib Dem’s will probably change laws to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders to acquire People’s gardens and 2nd/3rd/additional homes whether empty or rented. Green Party-no hope for anyone let alone LL’s-enuf said!

    Brexit party seems to be the only suitable alternative to Conservatives/Labour/LibDems & Green for that matter. If no Brexit candidates then register yourself as an independent candidate.
    If a good LL wins despite high odds, hopefully they will be able to influence, if not immediately change the laws to help honest LL’s in England.

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    David my friend buy your own you can stay as long as you like. I won’t interfere with your purchase you can tell the lender how you would like everyone to be.

  • Franklin I

    It's as if the government sat down a couple of decades ago, and said let's plug a hole in this housing crisis and shift the responsibilities from the local governments to ordinary LL's.

    Bingo! Let's create a BTL industry, use everyday LL's as pawns within our chess pieces, and once it finally matures and generates a billion pound industry annually and reaches that threshold, lets tax these LL's to death!
    Let's create unnecessary regulations, legislations and raid their budgets to fund our budgets, use them as scapegoats and create a 'Renter's reform bill,' that will further incriminate LL's as the problem and not the solution within the housing crisis.

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