Oaktree Lettings and Management is made up of Marianne Tomblin and Louise Rogers, two property professionals with over 30 years combined experience in the Lettings Industry. Focussing solely on Lettings for their clients brings a dedication of service second to none. Both Marianne and Louise hold qualifications in the Lettings industry and are committed to continual development in this field, giving landlords peace of mind that their investment is being safely looked after. With more legislation in force now than ever before, it is vital you choose an agent who is continually on top of the latest changes and amendments to housing law.
We are proud to have attained several industry accreditations which help us ensure that our service is the best it can possibly be. We are members of ARLA Propertymark; which means we meet higher industry standards than the law demands and strictly adhere to their regulations, ensuring that we only provide a first-class service and offer you the best possible advice. We are also members of The Property Redress Scheme, DPS and backed by a Client Money Protection (CMP) scheme which guarantees your money is always protected. The following website can provide you with further information. LINK http://www.propertymark.co.uk/professional-standards/protecting-consumers
This service guides a landlord through the initial stage of letting the property to the point where the keys are handed over to the tenants. From this point on, the landlord would look after or manage the property themselves. This service may be suitable for landlords with some experience of lettings and who are confident dealing with tenants on a day to day basis. The letting service includes:
Many landlords are not available to deal with the day to day running of their property, may not feel confident enough to do this and prefer to stay in the background or may be living abroad. In these case’s our management service is ideal. The initial letting of the property would include the services as per our Let Only service.
With the addition of :
Energy Performance Certificates came into effect from 1st October 2008. It is a legal requirement that all applicants showing interest in your property must be able to view the EPC. The EPC must be ordered before marketing commences and in place within seven days of marketing. The full EPC should be made available, not just the graph. If the EPC is not in place within seven day’s the property will have to be removed from the market until the EPC has been done. If you require Oaktree Lettings & Management to carry out the EPC, payment will be required upfront.
New regulations come into force from April 2018 to prohibit landlords letting a property to a new tenant that falls into the F or G band, it is therefore a good idea to have an EPC carried out before thinking of letting a property for the first time.
As of April 2018 new tenancies cannot be granted on properties with an Energy rating of F & G and a tenancy cannot continue beyond April 2020. The government intends to increase the amount of bands excluding from letting over the course of the next few years.
Improvements should be made to improve the ratings of these properties. For further information on this please go to:
Since 1st November 1994 all let properties must have a current gas safety certificate. This must be issued by a GAS SAFE registered plumber or a British Gas engineer. The regulations state that all installations, and maintenance of gas fittings, appliances, meters, pipe work and ventilation flues are checked for their safe use. The certificate must be renewed annually and a copy supplied to both letting agent and tenant. It is illegal for a plumber who is not on the GAS SAFE register to install gas appliances or carry out a gas safety certificate.
It is strongly recommended that open fires/log burners etc have the chimneys swept as a minimum once annually and at least before every letting.
Appliances such as wood/coal burning stoves should be serviced at least once a year.
It will became law on 1st October 2022 for all residentially let properties to have a carbon monoxide alarm fitted in each room where a gas appliance is present, excluding cookers. These should be tested before each new tenancy.
As of 1st July 2020 every new tenancy must have a satisfactory electrical installation condition report (EICR), carried out to the 18th Edition of the wiring regulations. The EICR must be made available to the tenant if requested, before they move in, or on moving in. Existing tenancies must have an EICR by 31st March 2021. This also applies to HMO properties
The regulations state that all soft furnishings provided within a let property must be fire resistant and have a permanently attached label stating that the item has passed the necessary ‘match’ and ‘cigarette’ tests. All furniture purchased after 1st March 1990 should automatically comply. Anyone found breaching these regulations faces heavy fines and/or imprisonment. Furnishings affected include any item with foam or soft filling interiors, such as some bed bases, mattresses, sofas, chairs, cushions, headboards, futons and garden furniture, etc. They should have tags in place stating their compliance or proof of date of purchase should be provided. If this is not possible the furniture cannot stay in the property.
As of 1st October 2015, there will be new regulations in place to require all landlords to install smoke detectors to each floor of a property. Landlords also need to fit a carbon monoxide alarm in any room which has a solid fuel appliance. We also recommend fire extinguishers and fire blankets are provided for the safety of the tenants. For full clarification of the latest recommendations for your particular property, we would recommend speaking to the local council as this can vary dependant on size, amount of floors and room layout etc as the regulations vary according to property type and whether the property is a HMO.
This act has now received royal ascent and will come into force on 29th June 2021. This act applies to buildings which contains two or more sets of domestic premises. It now explicitly includes the building structure and the external walls, as well as the common parts. A building that has two dwellings and may not share any communal areas would now fall under section 1 of the act. Even though there may be no shared areas, this means that from implementation that the building would need a fire risk assessment. The individual flats in the block remain excluded, apart from the front door being part of the common parts risk assessment. A fire risk assessment can be completed by the local fire officer.
Legionnaire’s Disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia which can affect anybody, but principally affects those who are susceptible because of age, illness and immune system problems. There are 300 to 550 reported cases of Legionnaire’s Disease in the UK each year, however it is thought that the total number of cases is underestimated, as infections which originate in the UK are often sporadic and for which no source of infection is traced.
Cases often occur in clusters and such outbreaks are usually associated with cooling tower systems and hot and cold water systems in factories, hotels, hospitals and other establishments. In private rented properties whirlpool and spa baths, hot tubs and Jacuzzi’s, shower heads and indoor fountains can pose particular hazards.
Legionnaire’s disease can be caught when infected water, in the form of an invisible aerosol is created and inhaled by a susceptible individual. This aerosol is fine water droplets and cannot be seen. There have been no specific studies, but it is estimated that 5% of domestic properties have Legionella present in their systems.
Whilst central heating systems pose very little threat, hot and cold water tanks and shower heads do pose a threat and should be regularly checked and inspected for integrity.
The control of Legionella bacteria in water systems takes various forms under law. including specific statutes and the Approved Code of Practice and guidance, referred to as ACOP L8, describes the legal duties relating to Legionella and provides practical guidance on how to comply and who is the Duty Holder and Responsible Person.
Whilst Oaktree Lettings & Management will not carry out any Risk Assessments on your rental property, we can recommend a company to do so; O2 Water Solutions. Their website is www.o2watersolutions.co.uk. Full information of their services can be found on the site along with further information on the matter and the laws and responsibilities involved.
We strongly advise landlords to ensure their property is secure to a standard requested by most insurance companies. A night latch (Yale lock) and mortise deadlock should be fitted to entrance doors and window locks should be fitted to all opening ground floor windows. This is the general standard required for a tenant to obtain contents insurance
The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are in force from 25th May 2018. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is the supervisory authority responsible for data protection. The regulations are intended to give people greater control of their personal data, requiring organisations and businesses to be accountable and transparent for the processing of that data.
Businesses, organisations and governments within the EU and those outside the EU who process EU residents' data. A private landlord is classed as a business and therefore must comply with GDPR and register with the ICO.
Personally identifiable information refers to any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified; this is also known as ‘personal data’. This may include a name, bank details, right to rent documents, an email address, location data (IP address) thus reflecting the changes in technology and the way in which organisations collect information about people since the introduction of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Personally identifiable information also refers to sensitive information that relates back to a person, for example, the salary information of a prospective tenant along with their name would be classed as personal data. The fact a tenant is looking for a property in London would not be personal data.
Within GDPR there are two roles that are important to understand. The role of the ‘controller’ and the role of the ‘processor’. The controller determines the purpose for which, and the manner in which personal data is processed, therefore making the decisions. The processor is responsible for carrying out the controller’s instructions and is limited to the scope of those instructions and must not process the data any further. GDPR places specific legal obligations on the processor. The processor will have a legal liability if they are responsible for a breach. Controllers will need data processing agreements with processors stating what can and cannot be done with personal data the processor is processing.
The ICO’s Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation defines: a “data controller as determining the purposes and means of processing personal data and a data processor being responsible for processing personal data on behalf of a controller”.
Processing is collecting, recording, storing, retrieving, using, erasing and the destruction of data.
The questions to ask are ‘should our processing be based on consent?’ / ‘do we require consent to process the data?’
There are actually six lawful bases for processing, of which consent is only one and you must have a valid basis in order to process personal data. Examples might include:
Most likely to be relied upon. A landlord provides their tenants’ contact details to the carpenter in order to repair the kitchen cupboard door, this would be contractual fulfilment, the landlord fulfilling his contractual obligations to repair the property.
what the legitimate interest is must be identified and where a legitimate interest is identified this must be stated on the privacy notice. A landlord needs to ask themselves ‘are you using the personal data in a way in which the tenant might reasonably have expected when they gave you the data’. A landlord would have a legitimate interest in referencing a tenant as they need to ensure the tenant is financially suitable to take on the responsibility of letting the property.
If you go beyond legitimate interest you may need to get consent. Consent is unlikely to be the most significant basis of processing within the private rented sector.
The landlord provides the tenants’ information to the deposit protection scheme in order to comply with the Housing Act 2004.
This is literally life or death and must be in the vital interest of the data subject as opposed to the business. It is not likely to be relied on much in the private rented sector.
The landlord discovers the tenants are supplying illegal drugs from the property; this is not in the public interest therefore the landlord informs the police supplying them with personal data relating to the tenant.
A thorough data audit (sometimes called an Information Asset Register) is the first step towards achieving GDPR compliance. You need to determine what data you hold, who is collecting it, how it is collected, why it is collected, the lawful basis of processing, who it will be shared with, how it is stored and when it will be deleted. As a private landlord your data subjects included may be your agent (if personally named), tenants, previous tenants and contractors.
Being transparent and providing accessible information to data subjects about how you store their personal data is key; the way in which you can do this is by providing a privacy notice. Privacy notices are not new to GDPR; they are a requirement under the current Data Protection Act 1998. Privacy information is normally located at the bottom of a web page. The output of your data audit will be privacy notices.
Where a data controller engages a data processor the controller needs to provide the processor with a data processing agreement. Where data consists wholly or partly of personal data the law requires certain provisions to be included in the written agreement.
Currently, the Data Protection Act 1998 allows a business to make a charge of £10 and gives up to 40 days to respond to an individual’s request. GDPR does not permit a charge and the timescale has been reduced to within one month of receipt.
It is a breach of the regulations to destroy personal data accidentally, to lose it, to allow unauthorised alteration or to allow unauthorised access or disclosure. The legislation requires serious breaches to be reported to the ICO within 72 hours of the breach being discovered. Personal data breaches include sending personal data to an incorrect recipient, alteration of personal data without permission and loss of availability of personal data. Failure to comply with GDPR can lead to a fine of up to 20 million Euros or 4% of global annual turnover if that is higher than 20 million Euros.
As a private landlord you are processing the data of an EU resident and therefore, under GDPR, you are a data controller.
You will have the personal data of your tenant(s) and you will make decisions as to how the data is controlled and processed. You are required to register with the Information Commissioners Office, this can be completed online at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/register/. There is a charge dependent on your size and turnover but in the majority of cases it will cost £40.00 per annum. You will also need to issue data processing agreements to anyone you deem to be a data processor for example, your IT support or your contractors. You will need to issue your tenant with a relevant privacy notice, informing them of how you process and manage their data.
You send the tenant an email to chase the rent arrears or contact them by telephone to arrange a property visit. In doing both of these activities you are processing data and will need to comply with GDPR. Your lawful basis of processing would probably be “contractual fulfilment”.
If, as a let only landlord, you instruct your agent to serve a section 21 notice on your behalf, you are the controller and the agent becomes the processor. The agent is not making any decisions, they are doing what you as landlord have instructed them to do in processing the data. The agent being the processor in this situation then becomes liable to you as the landlord, the controller of the data. Likewise you have responsibility for the processing by the processor.
If you give your tenants’ details to the plumber, you have shared the data. The plumber becomes the processor and is liable to you as the controller. The plumber is only going to do what you have requested with the data, i.e. use the contact telephone number of the tenant to arrange access to the property and the address to locate the property in question.
You will require a data processing agreement with the plumber and the agent in the above scenarios.
As from 1st June 2019, there will be a cap on the amount of deposit taken of equivalent of five weeks rent. This is regardless of the terms being accepted, ie. Pets, sharers etc
Along with the Housing Act 2004, in April 2007 the new regulations affecting how a Tenants deposit is held came into force. Anyone, be that an Agent or Landlord who accept money as a deposit under an Assured Shorthold Tenancy must protect the money under an approved government scheme within 30 days of the tenancy commencing. Oaktree Lettings use the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) which is a free custodial scheme, where the money is sent to the DPS to be held for the duration of the Tenancy. For more information on the DPS and their terms visit www.depositprotection.com
It is the Landlords responsibility to apply and pay the cost of obtaining a license for an HMO. A property is considered an HMO when it has five or more tenants. However, self contained flats, converted buildings and converted blocks of flats may also meet the required terms for a licence. We recommend checking with your Local Authority as to their specifications for an HMO, costs and minimum standards the property must meet to obtain the licence. The landlord is liable for the occupiers' Council Tax and therefore an amount to cover this should be included in the rental, this is applicable even if it is not a licensable HMO.
An additional requirement to GRANT and KEEP properties in a standard fit for human habitation. Based on The Housing Health & Safety Rating System(HHSRS) gives tenants more powers in enforcing such standards via the courts. The legislation will apply to new tenancies from the 20th March 2019 and all tenancies in existence from the 20th March 2020. The Act allows a Tenant to take a Landlord to court to seek compensation for works not carried out.
The HHRSS is a risk assessment inspection carried out by the local council to look at the potential hazards of the property.
There are 29 hazards falling into four categories:
Damp and mould growth, excess cold & heat, pollutants
Space/crowding. Lighting, noise, security
Hygiene, food safety, pests/refuse, personal hygiene, water supply, sanitation/drainage
Falls, electrical hazards, fire, structural collapse, entrapment
The assessment will consider the severity of each hazard by looking at the tenants and possibly their visitors and taking into account their age and vulnerability even though they may not be in occupancy. As only the council can carry out an assessment, we would always recommend you speak to the council for clarification of any potential hazards within your property. Attached is a leaflet giving guidance on the HHSRS used to assess hazards within the home.
Oaktree Lettings and Management would advise the Landlord to ensure their investment is well maintained. With the belief that a Tenant’s standards should not differ from the landlord’s, a neutrally decorated home with clean functional facilities should be the basis of all potential lets.
It is recommended that Landlords pay particular attention to the following:
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