14th
Jan 2019
The government has been heavily criticised for not coming to the assistance of thousands of landlords who have mistakenly granted tenants assured tenancies rather than assured shorthold tenancies.
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The MHCLG Department (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) has confirmed in writing to an industry association that is has no intentions whatsoever of introducing new legislation, this is in wake of the ruling passed in the court case, Caridon Property Ltd v Monty Shooltz.
The judge passed the ruling for the case that according to requirements of the Deregulation Act 2015 by failing to issue a gas safety certificate before the start of a tenancy invalidated the later Section 21 notice issued by the landlord to repossess his property.
The ruling applied a 'word for word' interpretation of the original Gas Safety Regulations that by issuing a gas safety certificate after the tenancy has started is viewed as being non compliant.
The MHCLG has said it is not prepared to change the law but will however update the guidance made available to landlords on its website to further clarify their precise legal responsibilities.
A spokesperson for an industry association 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. Our 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.”
“We recognise 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.
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