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Fury towards new tenant sub-letting law
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 2015 Budget has been heavily criticised by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), who branded Chancellor Osborne’s announcement as, ‘a nightmare.’
Osborne has proposed plans to make it illegal for tenancy agreements in the private sector to include clauses that prevent the property from being sub-let.
Small Print
Page 51 of the Budget Red Book includes the heading, ‘support for the sharing economy.’ The small print included under this indicates that the government will, ‘make it easier for individuals to sub-let a room through its intention to legislate to prevent the use of clauses in private fixed-term residential tenancy agreements that expressly rule out sub-letting or otherwise sharing space on a short-term basis, and consider extending this prohibition to statutory periodic tenancies.’[1]
Nightmare
Following the Budget announcement, the chairman of the RLA Alan Ward, was scathing in his response. Ward said that the, ‘measures on sub-letting are a nightmare in the making and smack of back of the fag packet policy making.’[1]
Continuing, Ward said that, ‘key questions remained unanswered such as who will be responsible for a property if the tenant sub-letting leaves the house but the tenant they are sub-letting to stays?’ He also said that, ‘similarly, given the Government wants landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants, who would be responsible for checking the status where sub-letting occurs?’[1]
Fury towards new tenant sub-letting law
Ward feels that, ‘it is difficult to see landlords supporting,’ the new measure. [1]
Landlord’s Energy Savings Allowance
Additional disappointment from the RLA was aimed towards Osborne’s failure to extend the Landlord’s Energy Savings Allowance. This is due to end in April and has been invaluable in assisting landlords to invest in improving the energy efficiency of their homes.
With the scheme not being extended, energy efficiency improvements can now only be financed through tenants’ energy bills, as part of the Green Deal.
Ward was angry at this announcement, stating that, ‘ministers have talked the talk on improving the energy efficiency of the nation’s rented housing stock but today they have pulled the rug from under the feet of landlords and tenants.’[1]
[1] http://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/news_features/2015-Budget%3A-Tenants-will-be-able-to-sublet
