I lead the housing management team here at Anthony Collins Solicitors.
I advise landlords, primarily housing associations, on all housing management issues providing practical solutions to often complex scenarios. The work I do involves providing client training, including bespoke training, as well as speaking on the sector seminar circuit.
I co-authored the latest edition of the National Housing Federation ‘Service charges: a guide for housing associations’ book. In 2013 I was shortlisted for Associate Solicitor of the Year in the Birmingham Law Society Awards.
The amount landlords will have to pay occupants entitled to home loss payments is increasing from 1 October 2019.
The consultation document was published at the end of July and is available here. It sets out the Government’s intention to impose duties on landlords (by way of regulations) to provide the secretary of a tenants’ association with information about qualifying tenants (primarily their name and contact details).
Under the Land Compensation Act 1973, a landlord may have to pay a resident a home loss payment if the resident is permanently displaced from their home (subject to the circumstances and various conditions).
The future funding of supported housing has been a question for a number of years but the proposed Local Housing Allowance (LHA) changes threaten the financial viability of many of these schemes.
What is the right to rent? Essentially this ensures all people who let properties have the right to live in the UK. Landlords should only allow people to live in their properties if the have the right to rent.
Of course this year is very different with organisations having to apply rent decreases for social housing tenants (even though we are still waiting for the Welfare Reform and Work Bill to be finalised and new Regulatory guidance to be published).
Those developed by RPs sit easily alongside schemes established by private developers, with both types of scheme undoubtedly addressing a key need within communities and providing a real choice of accommodation for those aged over 55.
The much trailed proposed changes to Category 6 (on-lending) were in the end not as extensive as anticipated: RPs can on-lend to group members fundamentally, as before, except if the lending is index linked.
Although we are still waiting for the publication of the new Regulatory Framework from the HCA, at the end of last year the HCA did publish its ‘Guideline rent limit for private registered providers 2015-2016’.
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