Landlords DIY Electrics

[ban-all-sheds]

£5000 fine is not much when you consider how much is made from the property per month. Likely less than a years rent.

Oh look - another example of where, at a stroke, and at zero cost to public finances, we could make the law much more effective.

Make the fine £500,000, and I promise you that fewer landlords would take the p***.

 

[SimonH2]

And there goes BAS again suggesting complete ruination for what are relatively minor things. Presumably you want hanging brought back for stealing a sheep ?
A £5k fine is not trivial. Typical returns on residential property lettings are in the order of a few % - lets be generous (and pick a round figure) and say 5%. So that £5k fine now represents the returns on £100k of turnover - many years of profits. And some of the worst offenders are getting very much larger fines.

Also bear in mind that the law is changing again. Almost certain to come into effect will be new regulations allowing for a national register of criminal landlords - repeat offenders can be put on the register and barred from letting properties for a few years (with prison an available sanction for ignoring the ban). At present, one LA can find a landlord to be unfit, but there's no mechanism for neighbouring LAs to know about this if he simply moves and changes properties.

One thing to bear in mind is that if the tenant has made a complaint to the local council about something in the property, the landlord is barred from serving a S21 notice (that's a new bit of law in the tenant's favour). If the council determine that the complaint is unfounded than the bar is removed, but if they determine there is a problem then they can order the landlord to make improvements - and ignoring such an order is a different matter again. From the landlords PoV I have "some reservations" about this since I have had a tenant of the sort that will use any trick to save (or make) a few quid - including outright fraud against the neighbour. The concern is that a tenant can make a vexatious complaint, and then trash the property, pay no rent, safe in the knowledge that the landlord can do f**k all about it other than the lengthy and costly S8 route which if they play it right can easily take 6 months to get a tenant out. Of course, the underfunded and understaffed housing department won't take any time at all to investigate a complaint
Put this in perspective, imagine if your employer decided to stop paying you (so no income), you still have your bills to pay, and for good measure, there's something in law which absolutely prohibits you from going and getting any other work for 6 months without going through a costly court procedure ?
To be clear, overall I'm in favour of dealing with bad landlords. Unfortunately there are protections being put in place for tenants of bad landlords, but no balancing protections for landlords against bad tenants.

Given the previous comments about the safety of the property, I'd suggest talking to the local council before taking it any further with the landlord. That way, you get protection from a S21 notice (at least for 6 months - I think longer if the landlord hasn't done any improvements ordered), and as long as you pay the rent you'll be safe from a S8 notice.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And there goes BAS again suggesting complete ruination for what are relatively minor things.

Well, if they are minor then the corollary is that it is in no way onerous to not do them, and therefore not difficult at all to avoid being ruined.