Archive for August 2010
Harsh Results in Rent Increases After a Long-Lease Ends
A recent case has exposed a very unfortunate loophole in the law which might have harsh consequences for certain long leaseholders.
Certain long leaseholds are protected under the terms of Part 1 of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954. The qualificatio…
legislation.gov.uk – not just a pretty face
Since late July we have a shiny new official home of UK legislation at legislation.gov.uk which replaces the two current…
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Is Planning Permission Really Required for an HMO?
A recent article in Planning magazine suggested that landlords did not have to seek planning permission for HMOs.
This was on the basis that a simple change in use class was not a trigger for the making of a planning application. This is true, in a se…
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Problems with advance rent payments
Advance rent as deposit? When a tenant appears to be a bit of a risk, rent wise, a landlord will generally either ask for a guarantee or an upfront payment of the first six months rent. They will normally also take a deposit which will be protected in the normal way. But is the five [...]
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Landlord responsibilities – what being a landlord really means
Landlord responsibilities are not the first thing most people think about when they consider investing in property. But it is important to realise that if you become a landlord, you are taking on legal obligations as well as an income stream. Landlord responsibilities – what are they? There are many legal obligations that you will [...]
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After a Section 21 Notice Expires
We are often asked the question of what the situation is once a notice pursuant to section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 expires.
Thanks to the decision of the House of Lords in Knowsley Housing Trust v White it is known that a tenancy agreement for an as…
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Tenants legal help – if you can’t afford to pay a deposit
Tenancy deposit problems You have found the perfect property to rent, it is in the right area, the rent is affordable, but you just cannot pay the deposit. What can you do? Local authority bond schemes The best thing to do is to see if there is a deposit or bond scheme in your area [...]
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Discharge bonus – an alternative to deposits?
Discharge bonus v. tenancy deposit
There is an interesting post over on the Pain Smith blog which raises a new alternative to tenancy deposits. A discharge bonus.
A discharge bonus is where the tenant pays no deposit (and so the landlord does not have to mess about with tedious tenancy deposit scheme administration) but if the tenant [...]
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Hospital or prison – your choice
Boatwright v Boatwright [2010] EWCA Civ 877 Let us not get excited, this is a nothing of a case, but in these dog days of summer, where substantive case law is hard to come by, we have to take what we can get. The Court of Appeal were confronted by a frankly bewildering application for [...]
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The Return of the Discharge Bonus
In the past it has been suggested that one way to avoid tenancy deposit protection would be for a landlord to offer tenants a ‘discharge bonus’. This operates by the landlord charging a rent at the upper end of the market level (although n…
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