Home » Uncategorised »
NLA Disappointed in Government for not Addressing Major Ruling
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
The National Landlords Association (NLA) is disappointed in the Government’s decision to not address a major ruling that is of crucial importance to all landlords of assured shorthold tenants.
A recent county court decision in the Caridon Property Ltd v. Monty Shooltz case ruled that a landlord who had failed to issue a Gas Safety Certificate to an assured shorthold tenant prior to moving in could never rely on a Section 21 notice as a means of ending the tenancy and recovering possession of their property.
According to the ruling, which applies a strict interpretation to the wording of the original Gas Safety Regulations, issuing a Gas Safety Certificate after the tenancy has begun would not be sufficient for the landlord to meet the requirements of the Deregulation Act 2015, which only applies in England.
But, despite lobbying the Government for change, the NLA says that it has now been told by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) that it does not intend to address the Monty Shooltz ruling to help the thousands of landlords who may have inadvertently granted assured tenancies, instead of the Assured Shorthold Tenancies that they meant to.
Instead, the MHCLG says that it will update the guidance available to landlords on the gov.uk website, to ensure that they are certain of their legal responsibilities.
The CEO of the NLA, Richard Lambert, says: “Having pressed the Government to respond to this judgement for nearly a year, their answer seems to be, ‘we’re not that bothered’.
“The Ministry clearly doesn’t understand the impact it is having. The NLA Advice Line is taking more and more calls from landlords who thought they had complied with the law, and now find themselves facing a disproportionate penalty for an administrative error. We cannot believe this is what Parliament actually intended.”
He continues: “The NLA recognises the vital importance of ensuring landlords arrange an annual gas safety check with a Gas Safe engineer. But we do not support the de facto introduction of assured tenancies because landlords cannot rectify an unwitting error made before a tenancy begins.
“We have no intention of letting this rest and will continue to lobby for change.”
