Coronavirus Advice For Tenants and Contractors

Thanks to Alwin Oliver and his team at Flats In Southsea for allowing us to share this advice which they produced for their own landlords, tenants and contractors 

Implications of the current Coronavirus status for landlords and tenants

This article sets out our advice to landlords and tenants in general and if you have been sent a link by your landlord please regard this as their response to the many challenges stemming from the COVID 19 Pandemic.

Viewings

This week one of our members asked the letting agents' professional body, the Association of Residential Letting Agents, for clarification on viewings. The Chief Executive responded personally late in the evening; "Whilst I have to stress that (landlords and) businesses must make their own commercial decisions, I would suggest that physical viewings should probably cease for the foreseeable future". A big thank you to David Cox, chief executive of ARLA and Ben Beadle of the NRLA who work tirelessly to support the industry and are our finest ambassador and advisors

We are advising landlords to avoid viewings, or property inspections unless unavoidable, with the possible exception of Gas Safety Certificates and CAT 1 Hazards, see below

Next A Thank You

Tenants

Signing Up For New Tenancies

Rent

Students Asking To End The Tenancy Early

We have had a number of requests and understand a number of you may have gone home, either as a temporary measure or not expecting to return at this stage. While we understand the question, but please remember that you have signed a legally binding contract your landlords are depending on the income from their property. While they can seek to defer mortgage payments landlords will have to repay it eventually and they still expect an income.  We have also been told by local universities that grant payments will continue to be made, so most students will not be in a position of additional hardship.

If you are considering asking for early release, or are reading this because you have asked, there is no really good reason why a student in receipt of a loan or other arrangement in hand before you moved in should not continue to pay the rent. Looked at another way, because you are asking to breach a legally binding contract, every request has to be recorded and responded to.

Put simply, asking to defer puts your landlord under unnecessary stress and anxiety, since in many cases the rental from a property is their main income and we ask that you just accept that the contract stands and pay in the usual way. Please pay the April rent as it falls due and consider paying the balance of the tenancy amount when your last loan payment hits your bank, that way it is done and you don’t have to worry about it. Check your tenancy end date when making the payment.

Ultimately if you fail to pay rent your landlord will ask for payment from your guarantor and if that is declined they will seek to recover the sums via the county courts, a process that could add their legal costs to the judgement debt and impact on your credit rating We hope never to have to do that, but please understand that there will be no exceptions.

Safety And Maintenance

Many gas engineers and electricians are working on gas safety and emergency calls only but we ask that if they have to visit that you maintain social distancing, so please open the door, verify their identity (VERY IMPORTANT) and then allow them to go about their work. This means that they will usually be alone in the room where they are working.

For other maintenance issues, Landlords will be working to the housing health & Safety rating system (Housing Act 2004) attending all CAT 1 hazards as soon as possible and CAT 2 on a need by need basis, depending on contractor availability usually within 7-14 days. We advise landlords to suspend all minor maintenance jobs, for example fences, borders and gardens. If you have locked yourself out, broken something or blocked a drain your landlord will usually ask you to resolve these matters if they are your responsibility.

If you cannot manage these things yourself our landlord members will do their best to provide you with a contractor number, it will be your responsibility to pay for this service. For genuine emergencies call your landlord for advice.

Thank you all whoever you are, tenants, landlords or facebook friends. If you have found this update interesting or useful please give us a like and feel free to share.