With over 25 years’ experience in lettings, there’s not much that Julie Ford doesn’t know about supporting landlords, agents and tenants through tricky tenancies and the ever-changing legislative landscape of the private rented sector. Julie worked at Citizens Advice for many years and now wears multiple hats as a consultant supporting landlords and agents who have problem tenants, as well as tenants who are in arrears. Julie is a tenancy mediator for the Property Redress Scheme Tenancy Mediation Service, and an advisor at HF Assist, the helpline for letting agents and property managers. In this ‘Ask the experts’ guest blog, she shares her roundup of the most common questions HF Assist receives from letting agents.  

Q: We are taking over the management of a property from another agent, the current tenant is on periodic tenancy and is refusing to sign a new AST, what can we do?
A: When taking over the management of an existing tenancy, there is no need to issue a new AST. This is because the landlord and tenant have not changed. As a managing agent you are not part of the tenancy agreement. You only need to get the landlord to sign terms of business with you.

Q: We issued a Section 21, but the tenant hasn’t left, can we change the locks?
A: No, you cannot change the locks. A Section 21 is not in itself an eviction, it is simply a notice seeking possession. The tenant does not have to leave when the two months’ notice expires. In fact, the tenant doesn’t legally have to leave the property until a bailiff is instructed to carry out the eviction 

Q: A fixed term tenancy ended and the tenant left without any notice, can I charge them one month’s rent as they left without notice?
A: No, if a tenant leaves on the last day of a fixed term tenancy, returning the keys and providing vacant possession, they do not legally have to give you any notice, so you cannot charge them any rent.

Q: The tenant agrees to dates for contractors to attend to carry out maintenance, but then either cancels at the last moment or just isn’t in when the contractor attends. Can we charge the tenant for missed appointments as we are charged by the contractor?
A: No, you can’t charge the tenant for the missed appointments as this breaches the Tenant Fee Ban Act 2019. If you have a clause in your tenancy agreement that states there will be a charge for missed appointments, this would be a breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the clause would be void.

Q: A sole tenant on an AST wants to move their partner in to the property, do we add them to the tenancy agreement?
A: If the tenancy is fixed term, it’s best practice to add the partner as a permitted occupier at this stage, you will still need to carry out right-to-rent checks but no other referencing is required. You can add them as a permitted occupier simply by using an addendum to the current tenancy agreement ( we have a template on our website). Then at renewal you can fully reference and have them as a tenant on the new AST.
If the AST is periodic, you can either add them as a permitted occupier or fully reference them and then draw up a new fixed term AST with both as named tenants.

Q: The tenant moved in six months ago and has now reported that there are mice in the property, who is responsible?
A: As the tenant has been in occupation for several months, the responsibility for getting rid of the mice would be the tenants. However, the landlord does have an obligation to repair the holes where mice may get in under S11 landlord and tenant act 1985.

The HF Assist helpline provides practical expert guidance and information from call handlers who have both legal and lettings experience. Upgrading to an HF Assist Premium subscription provides a 24/7 helpline covering all types of legal issues relating to a letting agent’s business, as well as access to a resources library with useful guides, documents and legal templates. For more information visit the HF Assist website. 

The Tenancies Reform Bill presented by Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather and aimed at stopping 'revenge evictions’, has failed to secure enough votes to pass in Parliament, much to the relief of Landlord Action and other industry organisations.

Following the result, Founder of Landlord Action, Paul Shamplina, who gave evidence at the end of October to the All Party Parliamentary Group, commented “This is great news for landlords.  Whilst I fully agree that tenants need to be protected from the small minority of rogue landlords, there simply wasn’t enough evidence to support the need for more legislation, which would have impacted a large number of good, reliable landlords.”

“In the 24 years I have been dealing with problem tenants, I have only ever heard of the words “retaliation/revenge eviction” in th

e last 18 months.   Section 21 gives a landlord an automatic right of possession without having to give any grounds (reason) once the fixed term has expired. Shelter’s figures that 213,000 tenants have been served Section 21 notices as revenge evictions must be guess work because without surveying every landlord, it is hard to understand how they have reached this figure.”

A recent survey of landlords that had instructed Landlord Action to serve Section 21 notices revealed that only 2% had served a section 21 because the tenant had asked for repairs.  28% served notice because there were rent arrears and 15% needed the property back so they could sell, 13% needed to move back into the property, 11% wanted to re-let to another tenant to obtain more rent and 8% said the tenant wanted to be evicted so they could be re-housed by the Council.

Paul Shamplina continues “passing this Bill would have created a loophole for tenants to remain in properties for longer, lead to further rental arrears problems, stretched the resources of local authorities even further and lead to longer delays at court.  Yes,  we want to make sure tenants live in a safe and pleasant environment, but preventing the proper use of Section 21 is not the way to do this and would simply tarnish good landlords with a bad name.”

We at Landlord Action would like to acknowledge the hard work carried out by RLA in relation to this Bill.

Having been a landlord for several years myself prior to starting Giraffe Lets in 2009 I knew that looking after your tenants was the key to a successful tenancy.  Good tenants will pay a fair rent for a good property and this is the mantra I've always stuck to when finding tenants for my own properties.

When the managing agent I was using left the industry to start a family it seemed like a great opportunity to establish a new company built from the ground up embedded with the principles of treating all customers fairly.  By customers I mean our landlords, tenants, professional trades people and suppliers as they all make up the fabric of our business.

Since inception in December 2009 Giraffe Lets has developed steadily and we now manage a portfolio of around 70 properties for landlords spread across the north east but predominantly in Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and North Tyneside from our current office in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.

There's five of us working in the branch including myself, my business partner, and our three staff who work tirelessly to ensure that all aspects of the tenancy are looked after.

As consumers have a lot of choice in our marketplace it is important that as a team we stay ahead of the game and do not become complacent which is why we run a programme of Continual Professional Development (CPD) for all team members to ensure that the whole team is equipped with up to date knowledge.

Our collective knowledge and experience combined with the fact we're a small agency means that we're well placed to deliver a personal service where each property and tenant is looked after as if they were our own.  That's what sets us apart from the bigger agents and is the reason why more and more landlords are being referred to us.

As our focus is on quality and being in the industry for the long term we welcome the introduction of mandatory redress schemes for the Lettings industry.  It can only improve standards of care for all landlords and tenants alike.  That has to be good for business.