IMPORTANT ADVICE ABOUT BOILER FLUES

From 1 January 2013, any Gas Safe registered engineer may turn the boiler off in a property and formally advise that it is not to be used.

The introduction of fan-flued gas appliances in the mid-1990s allowed gas central heating boilers to be installed away from external walls. This meant that builders could design new-build and refurbishment properties with boilers being installed on internal walls to make better use of the available space. The flues to these boilers were, in some cases, routed through voids in the ceiling space (and through stud walls) between properties above.

Some properties, mainly flats and apartments, have been built with these boiler flues which cannot be inspected because they are hidden behind walls or ceilings.

Gas Safe registered engineers are legally required to check the flue − which takes fumes away from the boiler − whenever the boiler is worked on and in order to issue the annual Gas Safety Certificate.  This includes a visual inspection.

The engineer needs to be able to check that:

- the flue is continuous throughout its length;

- all joints are correctly assembled and are appropriately sealed; and

- the flue is adequately supported throughout its length.

This necessitates the provision of appropriate inspection hatches in the ceiling (and, where relevant, stud wall).

A flue in poor condition, combined with a boiler that is not working properly, could put your tenants in danger from carbon monoxide poisoning, which can cause death or serious injury.

If you do have a property with a boiler where all, or part of, the flue cannot be seen, you or your Landlord will need to arrange for inspection hatches to be fitted.  This does not mean that the flue system is suddenly unsafe though – As long as the boiler passes a series of safety checks, including having audible carbon monoxide alarms fitted, it can be used normally for the time being.

Note: Carbon monoxide alarms are not an alternative to being able to see the flue and you will still need to have inspection hatches fitted.

You have until 31 December 2012 for this work to be completed. It is recommended that inspection hatches are fitted as soon as you are able to do so.

From 1 January 2013, any Gas Safe registered engineer will turn the boiler off, with your permission and formally advise you not to use it until inspection hatches have been fitted in appropriate places.

You need to take action now

If the property is less than two years old then contact the builder.

If the property is between two and ten years old get your Landlord to contact their home warranty provider, as they may be covered by them if there are defects in the flue.

If your property is 10 years or older you should contact a Gas Safe registered engineer.

For further information see:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/fluesinvoids.htm

http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/advice/flues_in_ceiling_spaces.aspx

Water utility companies, unlike other utility companies, can no longer cut off the supply if bills remain unpaid. This has lead to the prospective new part (section 45) of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 to be put forward.

The new law will basically mean that landlords failing to notify the relevant water companies of a tenant’s details will become jointly and severally liable with their tenants for overdue and outstanding water charges.

The water companies are more likely to take the easier option of pursuing the landlord for the debt, rather than trying to track down and recover from the tenant.

It should therefore be the standard practice of all letting agents to notify the relevant water company in writing when a tenant moves in and when a tenant vacates. The notifications should include all of the tenant’s names, dates, any meter readings and forwarding addresses where possible. Keep a copy of letters/emails sent.

A recent court case has highlighted a potential risk for Landlords and Agents when taking a deposit from a tenant.

Earlier this month a Court of Appeal ordered a Landlord to return a Tenant’s deposit plus a penalty equivalent to three times the deposit, in addition to losing the right to evict the Tenant.

The reason was that the tenant was not provided with ALL of the Prescribed Information as required by the Housing (Tenancy Deposits)(Prescribed Information) Order 2007.

The Tenant had paid a deposit to the Landlord who had correctly protected it with one of the approved tenancy deposit schemes.

The Landlord started possession proceedings because the Tenant had then allegedly fallen into arrears.

The Tenant counter-claimed on the grounds that the Landlord had failed to comply with the prescribed information requirements.

The Landlord argued that the prescribed information didn’t really matter and was only a procedural requirement.  He stated that all that mattered was that the deposit had been protected, and that the omissions were ‘minor’ ones.  He further argued that the Tenant could have found out everything they wanted to know directly from the scheme administrator.

The Court of Appeal held that the information requirement was not merely a ‘minor’ procedural one and were of real importance as they told Tenants how they could seek to recover their money and how they could dispute deductions without litigation.

These omissions could have been corrected by the Landlord giving the Tenant a leaflet about the scheme (freely available on each scheme’s website).

Labour is turning its fire on letting agencies that “rip off” landlords and tenants with excessive fees and charges, and will look at how to cap rising rents in the private sector, one of Ed Miliband’s key lieutenants has said.

In an interview Hilary Benn, the shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, said 3.6m homes were being rented in England and, next year, for the first time in half a century, more people would be living in private rented accommodation than in social housing.

Two-thirds of tenancies now involve a letting agent, an unregulated industry of 4,000 companies which he says are charging widely differing fees for managing relations between 1.4m landlords and their tenants.

The costs vary from £10 to £275 for checking references, while the charge for renewing a tenancy – where lettings agents send out an email and ask for it to be printed and returned – ranged from £12 to £220.

Benn said: “What is actually £220 of cost in terms of administration if you had just to send an email, open an envelope, stick it on file?

“That seems to me a rip-off. It’s a problem not just for tenants but also for landlords.”

Landlords’ and tenants’ groups backed the move. Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, said: “Anyone can set themselves up as a letting agent, and then potentially abscond with hundreds of thousands of pounds of people’s cash.

“It is therefore counterintuitive that estate agents who handle relatively little cash are regulated, but letting agents who handle lots of cash are not.”

Benn admits that Labour made a mistake in office by not building enough “social homes”, thereby creating the conditions for the current housing market.

Nearly a third of all private rented sector households are families with children and young people increasingly renting because they can’t afford to get on the housing ladder.

With many on the left calling for rent controls to be imposed to stop rising rents – the average cost in England is now £160 a week – Benn was cautious, saying the last time such measures were tried in the 1970s landlords fled the market.

“We don’t want to return to that because [the rental sector] is meeting a demand for housing”.

But he said he would consider linking rentals to inflation “on an annual basis”.

The Leeds Central MP, an early backer of Ed Miliband as party leader, said as part of Labour’s policy review he would be looking to “regulate market failure” where “an old way of doing things has not worked, does people over and is a rip off for people who are hard pressed”.

He also said that he would be considering ways of securing longer lengths of tenancies for renters – who on average move every 12 months, at least seven times more than those in social homes – including paying housing benefit directly to landlords instead of to tenants, a move that would reverse current coalition plans.

“This is one possible way to provide an incentive for a longer tenancy.”

Source:  The Guardian

These changes came into effect on 6th April 2012, meaning that:-

- New tenancies created on or after 6th April 2012 will be covered by the new requirements.

- Tenancies already in existence on 6th April 2012 have 30 days to comply with the new requirements, if they have not already done so.

- The new requirements will only apply to Court proceedings for a breach of the Housing Act, where those proceedings started on or after 6th April 2012.

Here is a summary of the changes:-

30 days – not 14 – to protect deposits

From 6th April, landlords and letting agents have 30 days from receipt of deposit in which to protect it.

The re-wording and extension of this timeline closes any loopholes with regards to deposit protection deadlines so that, now, if a deposit is not protected within 30 days, the tenant can take their landlord or letting agent to court – there is no other way to interpret this legislation.

A tenant may make an application to a county court for a penalty award against a Landlord or Agent even if the deposit has been protected after 30 days, although the courts will then take the fact that protection has occurred into account when deciding what level of penalty to impose.

A claim can be made even where the tenancy has ended.

Once the tenancy has ended the landlord cannot retrospectively protect the deposit in order to comply with the Act and avoid penalties. If the tenancy has ended, the only option is for the landlord to repay the deposit, or part thereof, to the tenant.

The courts have discretion to award not less than the amount of the deposit and not more than three times that amount depending on the individual case. e.g a repeat offender may find themselves with a larger fine compared to a landlord who has simply forgotten to protect as an administrative oversight.

Prescribed Information

The requirement for providing the Prescribed Information to the tenant has also changed to within 30 days of receipt of the deposit.

It is the landlord or letting agent’s responsibility to ensure that it is issued at the correct time, so should be given to the tenant(s) along with their copy of the signed AST.

Section 21 notices

A Section 21 notice for possession may not be given where a deposit has not been protected within the 30 day period. However, this prohibition may be mitigated where:

-the deposit has been returned to the tenant in full or with such deductions as have been agreed;
-an application to the county court under section 214 has been made and has been determined by the court or withdrawn or settled between the parties.

On 6 April 2012 the legislation on Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s) changed for both commercial and residential property transactions.

You need to be aware of these changes.

Change 1 – An EPC must be commissioned before marketing a property for rent

Since 2007, it has been a requirement that an up to date EPC must be provided to a prospective buyer or tenant.  However, concern that the EPCs have not been delivered in good time to allow the buyer or tenant to make a judgment regarding the property’s energy efficiency status has lead to the following three main changes to be brought in by the 2011 Regulations:

1.    An EPC must be commissioned before placing the property on the market, unless a valid EPC is already available.

2.    ‘All reasonable efforts’ must be made to ensure that the EPC is obtained within 7 days of the property being put on the market.

3.    After that point, there is an additional 21 day grace period to obtain the EPC after which the owner is in breach of the 2011 Regulations and may have to pay a penalty.  There is no defence of using reasonable efforts after this time is up.

NOTE:  This does not apply to properties already on the market prior to 6 April 2012.

Any Agent acting on behalf of the property owner will be bound by the 2011 Regulations.  An agent marketing the property will be liable for any breach and therefore must be satisfied that the landlord has commissioned an EPC or has one available before marketing the property on their behalf.

Change 2 – information to be contained in the property particulars

A copy of the first page of the new style EPC must be included in the written particulars for all properties.  It must be physically attached to the particulars.

This rule also applies to written particulars on internet sites,  The national EPC register operator has provided a technical solution which will enable agents to retrieve the EPC from the register and attach it to online written particulars.  More detailed information for agents is available on request by emailing: epc.enquiry@communities.gsi.gov.uk.

NOTE:  There is no requirement to change the written property particulars for buildings already on the market prior to 6 April 2012.

Change 3 – air conditioning reports.

EPCs have to be lodged in a central register, maintained by Landmark.  Under the existing regulations air conditioning systems over 12kw are inspected and a report is obtained.

From April it became a mandatory obligation to lodge air conditioning reports on the central government register

The amendments to the legislation relating to EPCs are quite small and should be easily brought into practice.  However, not being aware of the rules could lead to costly fines.

The fines for non-compliance are up to £200 for residential properties.  (For commercial properties fines start at £500 and rise up to £5000 depending on the rateable value).

For more details about all of these changes and FAQ’s click here