The Deregulation Act 2015

Understanding the Deregulation Act 2015: A Guide for Landlords and Tenants

The Deregulation Act will be a welcome change in the law for landlords, as it seeks to address some of the problems that have arisen out of the case law in this area.

It received royal assent on 26 March 2015 but is not yet in force and it amends the Housing Act 2004 to include the following provisions:

Section 215A
Where a fixed term tenancy is entered into before 6 April 2007, and it changes to a periodic tenancy after 6 April 2007, a landlord must comply with the tenancy deposit rules within 90 days of the tenancy becoming periodic.

This applies the decision in Superstrike v Rodrigues and extends the time limit from 30 to 90 days for complying with the rules.

Section 215B
Where a fixed term tenancy is entered into after 6 April 2007 and the tenancy deposit rules were complied with at that time, and the tenancy changes to a periodic tenancy and the deposit remains in the same scheme, a landlord is deemed to have complied with the tenancy deposit rules at the commencement of the periodic tenancy.

This addresses the Gardner v McCuskar decision and will give landlords a much needed bit of breathing space as landlords will no longer need to re-serve the prescribed information at the start of a periodic tenancy.

Section 215C
This section applies where a deposit is received after 6 April 2007 for a fixed term tenancy or a contractual periodic tenancy (verbal tenancy from the outset), and the deposit was protected and the prescribed information was sent out at the time.

As long as the deposit remains in same scheme when a renewal tenancy is granted or a contractual periodic tenancy replaces the original tenancy, and as long as the replacement tenancy is the same or substantially the same, a landlord is deemed to have complied with the prescribed information rules in relation to the renewal tenancy or the replacement contractual periodic tenancy.

Landlords should be aware that this does not include the protection of the deposit. Whether the deposit will need re-protecting in respect of the renewal or replacement contractual periodic tenancy will depend on the individual rules of each scheme.

Section 33 of the Deregulation Act is also important for landlords to be aware of as it affects a landlord’s ability to serve a section 21 notice on a tenant that has made a complaint about the condition of a property.

A section 21 notice will be invalid if a tenant makes a complaint in writing to a landlord about the condition of a property, and the landlord does not provide a response within 14 days, provide an adequate response, or gives a section 21 notice following the complaint, and the tenant then complains to the relevant housing authority who serves a notice on the landlord.

The Deregulation Act does give some guidance as to what constitutes an adequate response (it must set out the action that a landlord proposes to take in response to a complaint, and a timescale for doing so) but to avoid this being another avenue with which tenants can avoid possession, landlords should keep on top of complaints made by tenants in the meantime.