In this post we will look at what the English Housing survey has found, at whether the quality of housing is really getting better, covering all housing tenures including owner occupied homes, social housing and the private rented sector or PRS.

Selective licensing gives local housing authorities the power to designate an area within which all PRS properties require a licence. A change has just been made to the rules on introducing a selective licensing scheme in England. We will look at this change here, and at what it might mean for landlords and the wider housing sector.

Information on housing complaints and to what extent local authorities prosecute in response to them is always of interest to those involved in housing enforcement. However, reliable information of this kind is typically difficult to find. Now a new research report has collated some information on this topic, and we will consider some of its findings here.

In this post we will look at rent repayment orders and at an interesting appeal case in the Upper Tribunal. It has provided more insight on rent repayment orders and also who is liable to pay them.

In this post we will outline Spelthorne Borough Council’s recent decision to apply an Article 4 direction to the conversion of houses into small HMOs and look more closely at the actual story behind it. Article 4 directions for HMOs …. and what is important to know about them.

Improvement notices are an enforcement action available to local authorities under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004. Improvement notices are just one of the measures a local authority can use when hazards are identified. In this post we will look at an interesting recent tribunal case surrounding the use of improvement notices

The King’s Speech outlined the legislation that the new Labour government intends to bring forward in the next session of parliament. In this post we will look more closely at the housing-related proposals and at what they might mean for everyone involved.

What will the new Labour government mean for housing, and particularly the PRS, housing compliance and enforcement?

A report saying it is an ‘Independent Review of the UK’s Private Rented Housing Sector’ has just been published by Labour Party-linked organisation The Private Rented Sector Commission. It presents some proposals on how the private rented sector might be regulated in future. In this post we will summarise what it proposes and offer a few thoughts on what it might mean for the PRS.

A recent working paper by the NRLA The Enforcement Lottery: Local authority enforcement 2021-2023 has provided some interesting information on how (and even if) local authorities enforce housing law.

The Housing Act 2004 charges local authorities with enforcing housing standards in rented property. In a recent legal case a landlord managed to defeat enforcement action taken by the local authority – alongside a £22,500 penalty. Might landlords be able to use the fact they have a reasonable excuse in order to derail action local authorities might take against them?

This article focuses on series of amendments that have been tabled to the Renters (Reform) Bill which could drastically change this proposed new law. In this post, we will summarise these amendments and look at what they could mean for the PRS.