News

Rarely does a week go by when the media doesn’t contain a story relating to Universal Credit and the impact it is having on claimants and landlords alike. It can be difficult to cut through the noise and know exactly what the truth is. Then, just last week, the media reported that the Labour Party, should they come into power, plans to scrap Universal Credit altogether.

A tenant falling into arrears, or simply not paying at all, is a stressful situation, especially if communication between the tenant and landlord has broken down and led to an eviction. Of course, the circumstances can be tricky to navigate, especially if the tenant has not just stopped paying through choice but has fallen into financial difficulty. The tendency for some landlords is to assume that recovering the money will be too much hassle and to write it off as a bad experience. In some circumstances, this may well be the case, but not always.

Many of you will be aware of the Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz case. In short, the landlord, Caridon Property, failed to obtain a possession order based on their Section 21 notice, because His Honour Judge Jan Luba QC ruled that that the requirements of the Deregulation Act 2015 meant their failure to issue a gas safety certificate before the tenancy began invalidated the subsequent Section 21 notice for repossession.

Many landlords contact Caridon Landlord Solutions to see whether they are following the correct procedures when entering into a letting agreement with a tenant, this has increased ten-fold following a raft of changes introduced by the government such as The Deregulation Act, How to Rent, Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, Universal Credit, the list goes on.

Landlords and tenants who do not understand the implications of coordinating the Benefit Assessment Period (BAP) of Universal Credit with the dates of their tenancy agreement are, in some cases, missing out on nearly a whole month rent, according to Caridon Landlord Solutions (CLS). CLS is calling on new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to review the process and make necessary changes.

In 2012, a change in law made squatting in residential property a criminal offence. The inevitable consequence of this was an increase in the number of cases of squatting in commercial premises. Squatting has now become a real issue for commercial landlords and property managers, who need to make sure that they remove any squatters promptly and re-secure the property to prevent them from returning.