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FACT FILE - The
Housing Act 2004 - UK
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The
Housing Act 2004 received the Royal Assent on the 18th
November 2004. Listed below is a summary of Contents of the
Act.
-
The
Housing Health and Safety Rating System
-
HMOs
** - licensing scope and schemes
-
HMOs
** -
licensing requirements
-
Selective
licensing of other residential accommodation.
-
Interim
and final management orders.
-
Home
Information Packs
-
The
Right to buy
-
Park
Homes
-
Increasing
effectiveness of powers to regulate Registered Social
Landlords
-
Payment
of grants to bodies other than Registered Social Landlords.
-
Anti-social
behaviour in social housing.
-
Empty
Dwelling Management Orders.
-
Tenancy
Deposit Schemes.
-
Rent
Repayment orders.
-
Gypsies
and Travellers.
Definition
of HMO**
House
in Multiple Occupation means a building, or part of a building
(e.g. a flat):
- Where
more than two unrelated tenants share rented property. For
big shared houses - defined as those with three or more
storeys and five or more occupants - a licence will always
be required. Similar rental properties could be affected
to as councils will be able to extend licensing to
include other types of HMOs or even insistthat all
private landlords are licenced.see
below
- That
is occupied by more than one household and in which more
than one household shares an amenity (or the building lacks
an amenity such as a bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities);or,
- That
is occupied by more than one household and which is a converted
building that does not entirely comprise self contained
flats (whether or not there is also a sharing or lack of
amenities); or
- That
comprises entirely of converted self contained flats and
the standard of conversion does not meet a minimum, that
required by the 1991 Building Regulation and at least one
third of the flats are occupied under short tenancies.
And
is"Occupied" by more than one household :
And
the households comprise:
- Families
(including single persons and co-habiting couples (whether
or not of the opposite sex, or,
- Any
other relationship that may be prescribed by regulations,
such as domestic staff or fostering or carer arrangements.
Mandatory
HMO licensing will be resticted to certain categories
of "high risk" HMOs. The Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister (ODPM) envisages that this will include those HMOs
(as defined by the Act) that comprise of three storeys or
more and are occupied by five or more persons, who compromise
two or more households and consist, in part or entirely of
non-self contained units of accommodation (i.e. with an element
of shared facilities).
Converted
blocks of flats (i.e.all self contained units with no sharing
of facilities) that fall within the definition of an HMO will
not be subject to compulsory licensing, but can be licenced
under "additional licensing" if they are problematic.
The
detailed implementation of HMO licensing regulations will
be contained within secondary legislation which is still at
consulation stage.
To
get get a licence, landlords will need to show
an annual gas safety certificate, working smoke alarms, safe
electrical appliances and furnishings. They will also have
to state the property is suitable for the number of people
living in it. Councils will be free to charge different licence
fees.
Landlords
have until July 2006 to get a licence. If they don't they
will face fines of up to £20,000 plus having to repay
rent they got while unregistered.If an HMO property
doesn't have enough bathrooms the landlord could be asked
to install one by a certain date. If one is not installed,
the licence could be lost and a £5,000 fine given.
N.B.
This information should not be relied on for accuracy and
is presented here without the responsibility of jml Property
Service and the website it is being displayed at. ©jml property
Services 01/ & 11-05
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Statutory
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