I read an interesting article in The Times last week which highlighted the importance of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. This act was designed to give more rights to tenants in England and to set a legal minimum standard for the condition of their rented home. It puts a term into every tenancy agreement that that property must be fit for human habitation at the start of their tenancy and stay that way throughout the whole tenancy. It legally obliges social and private landlords to ensure that their properties are safe, healthy and free from hazards, It gives the tenant an ability to go to court for breach of contract when the landlord fails to comply with this obligation.
The Times highlighted that a number of residents are winning pay-outs from local authorities and housing associations because social landlords are ignoring their requests to bring their homes up to these minimum legal standards. In deciding whether a property is unfit for human habitation the act says that a property should be in good repair, it should be free from damp, it should have natural light and ventilation. It also specifies many other prescribed hazards which could give rise to a risk of harm to the health and safety of the occupier.
The Times quoted one case where a tenant won compensation from her housing association after it failed to improve her home adequately despite 5 years of complaints. Among the problems were damp, structural cracks, faulty electric electrics and a rat infestation.
It should be remembered that the new law can be used alongside existing rules that already give protection to tenants for example section 11 of the landlord and Tenant Act 1985. This is particularly helpful where a client complains about several items of disrepair and only some of those fall under the new act or where the disrepair started before the new act came into force.
The English housing survey showed that almost half a million council or housing association properties were now classified as non decent thus raising the prospect that hundreds of thousands of tenants could sue if their homes were not adequately improved. The Times article reported that the average award is now £3000 plus a commitment to complete the repairs within a given time frame, the average cost to make a housing association property decent is £4252 rising to £5488 for council homes.
This is an important law and to see it reported in the Times , highlighting the importance of every person to be entitled to live in a home that is in good repair, is such a positive message.
We regularly help tenants claim for housing disrepair, you can read more about this here.
You can read the original Times article here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bill-for-unsafe-council-homes-could-cost-social-landlords-tens-of-millions-h96nnfv97