Landlords in England will soon be subject to new legislation which aims to boost the standard of rented homes for the health, safety and welfare of tenants.
It means that tenants have a new route to request improvements to sub-standard rented houses and are less reliant on local authorities, whose resource for this type of work is variable.
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act received Royal Assent in December 2018 and comes into effect on 20 March 2019
The Act revives a clause which already exists in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, by inserting an implied covenant requiring all rented homes to be ‘fit for human habitation’ at the start of the tenancy and to remain so throughout. It also applies to communal areas.
The clause had become defunct as it only applied to properties let on what have become outdated rent levels (i.e. less than £80/year in London and £52/year elsewhere).