A tenant has been awarded a refund of more than £18,000 after a wall collapsed at the property he was renting. The court heard that the tenant had signed a two-year lease on a house with no break clause. He paid all the £34,000 rent in advance. After moving in, the tenant contacted the letting
A landlord has been ordered to cut its service charges covering several years by 50% because they did not represent a reasonable proportion of the costs involved. The case involved a tenant who owned the lease on a flat within a converted factory. The landlord was a residents’ association managed by other tenants. The
Uber says it will continue its legal fight against the ruling that its drivers should be classed as workers. It made the statement after the Court of Appeal upheld an Employment Tribunal decision in 2016 that drivers were entitled to workers’ rights including the minimum wage. The tribunal at the original hearing heard that Uber
Two landlords have won a long-running dispute with their local authority over renting homes in multiple occupation (HMOs) to students. The issue arose after the authority imposed conditions on the HMO licences prohibiting the use of attic bedrooms for sleeping because the roof slope meant they were smaller than what it considered acceptable for a
A landlord has succeeded in legal action to prevent a leaseholder letting out his flat on short-term lets using websites such as Airbnb. The landlord was the freeholder of a building which had been converted into flats. Many of the flats had been sub-let by the leaseholders on assured shorthold tenancies, usually for a minimum
New rules designed to protect more than 800,000 people from poor living conditions in privately rented homes have now come into force. An estimated 4 million people live in private rented homes, including at least 1.1 million who are in licensable ‘houses in multiple occupation’ (HMOs). All landlords who let out a property to
The government has continued its crackdown on unfair letting fees by announcing that tenants in the private rented sector will no longer be forced to pay excessive fees for minor damages, The announcement is part of the Tenant Fees Bill and is a further measure to bring an end to costly fees imposed by a
Radical reforms to provide a better deal for leaseholders who want to purchase the freehold or to extend the lease of their home have been put forward by the Law Commission. The proposals would: make the process (known as “enfranchisement”) easier, cheaper and quicker improve and enhance the rights of leaseholders to buy their freehold
Tenants and leaseholders can now access official guidance on their rights when renting their home. The online rental guides, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, are part of a continuing crackdown on poor practice by a minority of landlords and agents in the private rented and leasehold sectors. The Citizens Advice
A developer has won the right to build in open countryside despite opposition from the local planning authority. The case involved developer George Barlow and Cheshire East Council. Barlow had applied for planning permission to build 10 houses on open land. The authority failed to make a decision within the prescribed period, so Barlow appealed.