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Determining precisely who is responsible for pests, landlord or tenant, can be a grey area. But what guidance does the law give us? The following questions and answers should help guide you through relevant legislation and the most well known case law and determine just who might be responsible for pests: 1. Do the pests…

4 stories, 4 clients, 3 estate agents, all in this area, all in the last month… Estate Agent A is a long-established agent and sadly they don’t know how to protect deposits. This is from 2 unconnected clients. If someone were to take these people to court, the years of malpractice would take them under.…

DEFRA / UK Air guidance says a chimney should be swept “each year”. HETAS says a chimney should be swept “at least twice a year when burning wood and at least once a year when burning smokeless fuels”. NACS says a chimney burning wood and bituminous should be swept quarterly when in use. The Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps…

In the first instance check what it says in your Tenancy Agreement as to what you agreed regarding landlord access to the property. Beyond that the key pieces of legislation that cover landlord access are as follows: Consent None of the statute requires affirmative/express consent to be given; passive compliance following notice is legally sufficient.…

This press release from DECC suggests that from April 2018 the government will make it unlawful to rent out a house or business premise which has less than an “E” energy efficiency rating – http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn11_40/pn11_40.aspx

My understanding is that if a rented property is sold the deposit can be transferred if it is in a custodial scheme (i.e. DPS) but not if the deposit had been placed in an insurance based scheme. If it was in a custodial scheme I guess the 30 day rule would apply. If a landlord/agent…

I can’t imagine why any landlord would want to start a tenancy without taking the full deposit in cleared funds up-front but I did notice that the recently re-vamped DPS website now accepts multiple payments for a deposit so perhaps it is something landlords and agents do (for whatever reason) but how does this fit…

There is no legal definition of a bedroom but the short answer is if a room has a floor area of less than 50 square feet overcrowding may be an issue. We have all viewed properties where the 3rd of 4th ‘bedroom’ is not big enough to swing a cat so what are the space…

This question regularly crops up at the end of a tenancy. The House of Lords defined fair wear and tear as “Reasonable use of the premises by the Tenant and the ordinary operation of natural forces“. The ‘natural forces’ being sunlight, rain, wind and ageing. Whilst there is no one legal definition of damage it…

The legal requirements for tenancy deposit protection is covered within the Housing Act 2004 as amended by Localism Act 2011. The requirement to supply information is detailed further within the Housing (Tenancy Deposits)(Prescribed Information) Order 2007  (SI 2007, No.797). Irrespective of what some letting agents may tell you they too have legal duties that are…