Author: David Peachy Charles Irvine
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RENTERS: What Are Your Rights Part 2
This is the second in a series of articles dealing with the rights of LGBT renters.
In our first article we dealt with new laws preventing retaliatory eviction. We touched on complaints to a landlord, but when can you complain – what are your rights?
The right to live in a safe property
This is the big one. Your landlord has obligations to ensure that any gas appliances are checked annually by a GasSafe qualified engineer – they have to obtain a certificate and, if they don’t provide this to you when you ask, alarm bells should ring. Speaking of alarms, landlords are also legally required to have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms installed in all rented premises. If they fail to do any of these things they are committing a criminal offence and can be prosecuted.
A landlord is also required to ensure that a property is fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy, and they have to make sure that the house or flat you are in is not “prejudicial to health”. This means that, if your bedroom is damp and causing you breathing problems, you could be entitled to compensation from the landlord. You could also be entitled to compensation if there are problems with the structure of the building, or with the electrics, gas or water.
So what should you do if the roof is leaking, mould is growing up the walls and there is no hot water? Complain to the landlord (or managing agent) as soon as a problem arises. If there is no response, speak to a housing officer at your local council about the steps you can go through to rectify the problem. And make sure you record everything. Photograph any mould (phone cameras usually record the date of any photographs). Keep all correspondence from the council. Communicate by email with your landlord: this means both you and your landlord (and, if necessary, a judge) will be able to see who said what and when.
The right to have your deposit protected in a government-approved scheme
For a few years now, tenants have enjoyed the security of deposit protection schemes. This means that a landlord must, within 30 days of payment, send you a certificate proving that they have protected all of your deposit. They must also provide you with a booklet issued by the scheme which explains how the deposit protection scheme works. From early 2016, there will be a requirement for the landlord also to provide you with guidance on renting more generally. A failure to do any of this will mean that they cannot serve you with a non-fault eviction notice (“also called a section 21 notice”). Note that we will deal with eviction notices in the next article. If the landlord doesn’t protect your deposit, you will also be entitled to compensation and a court order that the landlord either protects the deposit or returns it to you immediately.
The right for any managing agent to be licensed
Since October last year, all managing agents are required to be part of a government-approved regulation scheme. If they are not, they can be fined by the local council. All the major agents are members, but if you are renting through a smaller agency that is going to manage the property, don’t be afraid to ask for proof.
In addition, in many metropolitan boroughs, all landlords of residential premises must be licensed. Check the web page of your local council to see if this applies to your area. If you’re lucky enough to live in the land of song, compulsory registration of all landlords of Welsh homes was introduced on 23 November this year. It also looks very likely that, under a proposed new law, rogue landlords may be banned from renting out residential property at all. This is all good news for tenants.
Summary
There is a raft of law protecting you as a tenant. Usually, if you are a good tenant and a problem arises with your home, a polite request that it be rectified is enough to solve it. But if you feel like your landlord is out of order or he/she is just ignoring you, the chances are that there is a legal mechanism to force him or her to sort things out. If this happens, speak to the citizens’ advice bureau, Shelter (a charity) or get legal advice.
David Peachey is a barrister at Enterprise Chambers. Charles Irvine is a barrister at 1 Gray’s Inn Square Chambers. They both undertake cases in property, probate and co-ownership. This article is for general information only and you should contact a property specialist if you require advice about your individual circumstances.
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LEGAL CLINIC: Renters What Are Your Rights
It is a fact of modern life – a vast majority of us rent our accommodation. This is the first in a series of articles dealing with your rights as a renter. This week we deal with retaliatory evictions.
One of the worst aspects of renting is the lack of stability – private landlords can evict you for no reason. All they have to do is give you two months’ notice (although there are strict rules as to the date on which the notice should expire).
Most people would agree that a landlord should be able to evict a tenant when there is unpaid rent, or where the tenant is trashing the property. However, some landlords will evict you on unreasonable grounds. They may try to evict you because you have complained about the property being in a poor state of disrepair. Or they may decide to do so because you are LGBT.
Complaining about the property
Some landlords may decide to evict a tenant if he or she complains about the state of the rented property. Here we are putting ups with dodgy boilers, out of date gas certificates and missing smoke alarms (which are now required by law in rented properties) because we are afraid we may be evicted if we complain. It also means that landlords evict tenants and get new ones in, rather than solving serious faults with the property.
All that changed on 1st October 2015. Now, a landlord’s ability to evict you for making a complaint about a “hazard” at your rented property is restricted. In order to obtain this protection, you need to involve your local council. The first method is easy – complain to your local council, and if they tell the landlord to rectify the situation then the landlord cannot serve you with an eviction notice (called a section 21 notice) until six months later. That gives you the right to stay for at least eight months (the six month period plus the legally required two month notice period) in the property, from the day that the council complains to your landlord.
However, you may think it makes more sense just to write to the landlord to complain. If you do this and the landlord attempts to evict you as a result, you will need to inform the local council who should, if they agree that the property is in need of repair, tell the landlord to rectify the issue. This then gives you protection against retaliatory eviction.
LGBT tenants
It is disappointing for LGBT renters that there is no framework to prevent retaliatory eviction as a result of a landlord discovering that his renters are LGBT. It is illegal for a landlord to discriminate against someone for being LGBT when initially renting out property (unless it is a lodger in the landlord’s home), but this does not, it seems, apply once an LGBT tenant has moved in.
However, most landlords are far more concerned with getting regular rent payments than with gender identity, sexual orientation or ethnicity, so once you are in situ this is unlikely to be an issue. A landlord can still evict you if you fall into rent arrears and cannot repay them before he gets to court. But if you stay up to date with rent and comply with your tenancy agreement, the landlord will probably ignore any personal gripes he may have about your actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, and leave you to enjoy your home in peace.
David Peachey is a barrister at Enterprise Chambers. Charles Irvine is a barrister at 1 Gray’s Inn Square Chambers. They both undertake cases in property, probate and co-ownership. This article is for general information only and you should contact a property specialist if you require advice about your individual circumstances.
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COMMENT | The Trans Battleground
Is the battle for transexual equality over? Ten years on from the Gender Recognition Act, TheGayUK’s legal experts look at how the law is protecting or not, the transgender community.
This April, the LGBT community and their supporters will celebrate the ten year anniversary of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This landmark law gave the trans community the ability to be legally classified by their chosen gender, i.e. to obtain a new birth certificate recognising that person as being a man or a woman (known as a “Gender Recognition Certificate”). The test was whether the person in question suffered from gender dysphoria (i.e. severe discomfort with one’s biological sex) and had lived as their chosen gender for two years.
Until December of last year there was a quirk in the law, which meant that any married person who wished to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate had to divorce their spouse if they wished to have their gender recognised. However, thanks to gay marriage, that quirk has now been removed.
Yet more good news came in the intervening 10 years, in the form of the Equality Act 2010. This act means it is now unlawful for a person to discriminate someone for being (among other things) trans. The definition for trans is whether someone has undergone, is undergoing or is proposing to undergo a process “for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex”. This means it protects trans people both before and after the operation, but not people who are happy with their biological sex but prefer to dress as the opposite.
But we are not there yet.
Alarming figures from the Home Office show that in 2014 there were over 550 hate crimes perpetrated against the trans community. This mightn’t seem like a lot, but it represents around a quarter of the trans community in the UK (based on the 2009 figure of how many Gender Recognition Certificate had been issued). What is of further concern is that the gap between the social acceptance of LGB people and trans people is widening. There is a danger of trans people being “left behind”, losing some of the unity that previously aligned their cause with that of the LGB community.
So whilst on the statute books the battle against inequality and prejudice has apparently been won, in the hearts and minds of many, trans rights are irrelevant or even abhorrent. It is up to all of us to continue to show solidarity in the fight for equality so that the abbreviation remains LGBT, not LGB and T.
Have you got a question for our legal team? Check out our legal pages here
Charles Irvine is a barrister at 1 Gray’s Inn Square; David Peachey is a barrister at Enterprise Chambers. Both practice in the area of trusts of the home, inheritance and property law. Special thanks to Phillipa Woodrow, pupil barrister at 1 Gray’s Inn Square, who helped research this article.
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