There is to be no comparable law for private landlords, following the introduction of Awaab’s Law.
Earlier this week the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government began consulting on a clamp down on rogue social landlords who fail to provide safe homes. It proposes introducing new strict time limits for social housing providers and force them to take swift action in addressing dangerous hazards such as damp and mould.
It also proposes new legal requirements for social landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days, start fixing within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours. Those landlords who fail can be taken to court where they may be ordered to pay compensation for tenants.
Social landlords will be expected to keep clear records to improve transparency for tenants – showing every attempt is made to comply with the new timescales so they can no longer dither and delay to rectify people’s homes.
However, the government has ruled out a comparable law for private landlords.
Speaking in the House of Lords, housing minister Baroness Scott of Bybrook told Peers: “There are differences between the rented housing tenures. Almost half of private rental landlords own a single property and the vast majority own fewer than five so, unlike social housing landlords, very few will have in-house or contracted repair and maintenance teams, which makes it more difficult.
“We have to consider proportionate timescales in legislation for the private rented sector. However, we are taking action to improve the safety and decency of private rented homes through the Renters Reform Bill, which will be in this House shortly.
“We have introduced an amendment to the Bill to apply a decent homes standard to the private rental sector for the first time and to give local councils enforcement powers to deal with non-decent homes. As I say, that Bill will be introduced to this House shortly. We will also set up a new private rented sector ombudsman through that Bill, which will also have extra powers.”
On the social housing side, Housing Secretary Michael Gove comments: “Today is about stronger and more robust action against social landlords who have refused to take their basic responsibilities seriously for far too long. We will force them to fix their homes within strict new time limits and take immediate action to tackle dangerous damp and mould to help prevent future tragedies.
“Alongside Awaab’s Law, our landmark Social Housing Act will drastically improve the quality of life in social housing, granting residents a proper voice to fight those who think they can cheat the system and ensuring rogue landlords face the full force of the law.”
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Perhaps because we make sure our tenants ventilate and nip any problems in the bud. Social Housing tenants seem to expect everything done for them. So glad I have professional tenants.
The problem is there is no happy medium here .some landlords are selfish and won't spend money .however there are tenants who don't pay there rent .and I feel that if the tenant is really bad they should be out within the 6months section 21 .I hasten to add there isn't enough judges and courts to deal with the situation ..and why once a possession order has been granted can a tenant request a court hearing ..seems another set back ..dodgy tenants plead homeless to a district judge and get 6 weeks grace .utter joke ..we had a tenant owed my friend /landlord 12k with robbing the meter legal costs and rent loss .had to get police involvement they were useless.
And you wonder why back street eviction is on the increase .all landlords watch out for a Martin David Lee from denton .
In one of my past accommodations I was told the mould was due to improper venting. The mould pattern was not typical of condensation as it was near the bottom of the floor and not in the corners or near the window. I heated my home normally, dried clothes with a dryer or outside and used the vent in the shower.
The landlord kept insisting it was condensation, until I complained to the council and she actually sent a boiler to investigate.
Turns out it was water ingress. There was a gap in the lead and when it rained, the water pooled in the gap which came through the wall.
Landlords love to blame condensation, but equally tenants are not dumb to building issues and know when something isn't right.
And why should there be any new law for Private landlords regarding mould or for Housing Association's either.
Mould & Condensation is caused in the vast majority of cases by the occupants can you at least accept that.
Its the occupants that should be targeted and required to take responsibility for their actions. It’s so easy for the Tenants to avoid mould and failing that if they see any initial stages of mould starting wash it off before it gets established.
The worst case scenario and they have allowed black mould to get established there are plenty of household mould cleaning products on the market (wickes have a very good one £7.00) scrub it off never mind running to the Council or Changing Laws based on here say.
Don’t use the Awaab’s misfortunate death as a reason to change laws which was nothing to do with it and clearly neglected by Parents but weren’t prosecuted and this behaviour has since been promoted & encouraged.
I totally agree Michael. I had a 4 tenants in my property for 2 years! no problems ,they aired the property and opened WINDOWS! The new tenant arrived with her 3 children. She has been in 1 year and I have inspected the property every 3 months and noticed condensation and mould behind the sofas which I promptly gave her the spray and asked her to open windows and not dry the washing in the house. The windows are soaking wet and running down the wall. No cloth has ever been used so I go every 3 months and wipe everything down. Its been a nightmare and luckily she is leaving next month however now claims that her 3 children have asthma because of my home which is simply untrue!
Hidden in that report is the statement that the bill has an amendment to introduce a decent homes standard. I wonder what else is being slipped in at this stage?
Maybe Awaab's law should apply to parents who fail to care for their children as in Awaab's case
Totally, it’s always someone else’s fault 🤷♂️
Thoroughly preventable but unfortunately social services department had been on team building exercises and working from home to be bothered about this poor little tyke.
Political spin ensued and blamed the other department in social housing who are immune from prosecution.
I went to see a property to purchase. The house was full of mould. There was one bathroom, which was an ensure. This room was shared by 2 children with their grandmother. When I talked to the agent responsible for selling and letting both. They said the tenants were not opening the windows. It was impossible to open the windows. The tenants continued to pay rent as they were looking for a house and wanted to be in good terms with the agent. One property, they were going to purchase had a bad survey so they did not buy that. This transpired after the survey was done on this property and found that there was not only mould but windows were fixed so cannot be opened in the whole house. They were crooked windows, crooked staircase, crooked walls. Practically everything was wrong with the house. The agent was very annoyed that I was not purchasing the property. I send them the survey report to prove to them that the costs of putting everything will be more than double to what I was purchasing for. This information should be passed to the owner so they can put it all right before selling. This agent continued to market the property along with the other property the tenant had surveyed and was found inhabitable. This landlord and agent needs to be prosecuted. I persistently get phone calls from this agents headoffice to let my property with them. I refuse to know or consider them. They insist it was their sales office and the lettings is different. They cannot see that they are letting agents for those properties. Their staff work until 7pm. Other agents in the area work until 5pm. One agent works until 5.30pm. But 7pm is just ridiculous, they do not like you to go in their office. They seem to have like 7 or staff, all sitting around joint desks in the middle of the office, facing one another., except separate manager's desk. I am not sure what they do all day. They market their ses at a lot higher prices.
Sounds like a firm that bombards me. They have an "Italian" connection in their name.
14 Days to respond & 7 to start work is laughable
I consider Mould so dangerous, that I respond within 24 hours, and I start work immediately
Just out of interest KB how would you tackle mould when your tenants are not opening a window or airing the property?
I remember, less than 10 years ago, none of this was an issue.low quality properties were not tolerated by tenants who had plenty of other affordable options in their area. As a landlord, you had to keep your properties in good repair, looking nice, with modern kitchens and bathrooms if you wanted a chance of getting a good tenant that would pay a reasonable rent. For repairs, you could have an adult conversation as to who would need to do what to resolve it - knowing the landlord would want to keep a good tenant, and the tenant wouldn’t want the hassle of moving unless necessary - but had the option without facing a big rent rise.
Renters didn’t need protections because they could vote with their feet. Also because we weren’t being preyed upon as much by the vulture like councils and government - we could afford to refurb, refresh, repair etc without putting rents up. Everyone was better off.
Now look at things after less than 10 years of the government “trying to fix” things. And Labour say they’ll go further - god help us all. At this point there is a sizeable part of me that is just sitting back with a bag of popcorn to watch the inevitable results of these new schemes and initiatives.
Lived in a house and had cavity wall insulation. After that started getting small amounts of mould but was quickly dealt with with a mild bleach solution wipe down. Then had a tenant for 10 years in same property with no problems. October 2022 let to a Latvian family. By January's inspection couldn't believe there was mould in bathroom, landing, and bedrooms. It soon became apparent that they had turned off the automatic fan in the bathroom (separately
switched). They had been drying clothes and hadn't been opening windows. A quick lesson on drying clothes in the garage/utilty on wet days and a bit of bleach solution in a spray bottle and problem solved.
Completely agree with above. My parents Bovis built house which we moved into in 1973 never had mould. I let this property to an elderly couple for 12 years from 2002 until 2014, no issues. I lived in it for 3 years, surprise surprise no issues. Let to a polish family and mould in bedrooms and bathroom. They were a very clean family and kept the house spotless, they just did not know that you needed to ventilate a property.
Consequently I don't think this problem is going away.
We have the same problem no ventilation yet its our fault
Well this is going to cost social landlords a fortune and the one in our area which is just another arm of the council, will probably end up in a massive rise in our taxes to pay for it.
Many a time I have noticed in the local press, issues with damp with regard to this housing association.
It makes you wonder, with all the maintenance issues they face, whether they are actually losing money on these low cost rentals.
A whole estate in our area was re-rendered with synthetic coating, which is very expensive, probably around £15,000 to £20,000 per property, all paid for by the local housing association.
A lot of social housing in Norwich is 60s precast concrete and full of asbestos all past it's sell by date and needs replacing
During a Lords debate, shadow housing spokesman Lord Khan of Burnley pointed out that millions of children in the private rented sector were also living with damp, mould or excessively cold temperatures.
MILLIONS? Either prove it (you Khan't) or this is pure anti-PRS propoganda on behalf of the Labour party.
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