UK Tenants Soon Able to Take Landlord to Court for Lack of Maintenance

UK Tenants Soon Able to Take Landlord to Court for Lack of Maintenance

Introduction

Property rental in the UK is a growing area with around 20% of people renting a house. This number has seen a significant rise in recent years with 10% being the rate in the mid to late 1990s, and with the increase, higher standers of properties are also available and more importantly, expected.

Renting a property still means that the landlord is responsible for many aspects of maintenance. The issue that follows this is that since the landlord doesn’t live in the house or apartment, they have little motivation to fix problems. Numerous tenants live in unacceptable situations hoping for fixes that take far longer than is ideal to come to fruition

The new UK legislation, or rather, amendment, will make it far easier for tenants to push the landlords to make changes and repairs as soon as possible or risk being taken to court and being ordered to do so.

Amendments to the Landlord and Tenants Act 1985

The new legislation will amend elements of the Landlord and Tenants Act of 1985 and will allow tenants to sue their landlords if certain conditions are present within the property. The specified areas mentioned include:

• Properties that are too hot or cold;
• Properties that have issues with damp, which can lead to mould, and asbestos;
• Properties with lighting and noise issues.

The properties should receive appropriate maintenance and repairs performed and good standards maintained consistently.

This change will be of great news to the large numbers of individuals and families who are at the mercy of the landlords when it comes to maintenance and should heighten living standards for the millions in rented properties.