November 2015

Announced in the Summer Budget, along with other welfare changes, freezing of Local housing Allowance (LHA) payments has been confirmed by Government. The RLA has training available to help landlords make the most of the changes. The Rent Officers (Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Functions) (Local Housing Allowance Amendments) Order 2015 SI 2015/1753 provides that LHA rates will remain at the April 2015 levels (or be set at the 30th percentile point for local market rents, if this is lower). In the Summer Budget 2015 (para 1.137) the Chancellor announced that these rates will be frozen from 2016/17 to 2019/20.

In a new press release from the DCLG and Housing Minister Brandon Lewis, the Government claims that new measures are to be introduced to tackle ‘rogue’ landlords ‘head on’. This relates to a new discussion paper outlining plans to improve standards of shared homes by extending mandatory licensing to smaller and medium sized properties…

From 1st February 2016 all landlords will be required to check the ‘Right-to-Rent’ status. In preparation the RLA has prepared a guide to make sure that landlords are on the right side of the law. Prepared by the RLA Landlord Advice Team (LAT) and Policy the information in the guide will answer any questions you may have about the checks…