{"id":17578,"date":"2018-06-12T09:45:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T08:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyassociation.co.uk\/?p=17578"},"modified":"2018-06-12T09:45:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T08:45:22","slug":"tenant-deposits-could-be-capped-at-three-weeks-under-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/news\/tenant-deposits-could-be-capped-at-three-weeks-under-labour\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenant deposits could be capped at three weeks under Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opinions across the housing industry are decidedly mixed on the upcoming Tenant Fees Bill, which proposes a six-week cap on tenant deposits as well as a letting fees ban – but Labour wants deposits reduced even further.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Tenant Fees Bill<\/a> is expected to cause a major shake-up in the private rented sector (PRS) for both tenants and landlords, as well as letting agents<\/a>, with the aim of making the whole process fairer and more transparent.<\/p>\n

Some of the measures, such as banning letting agency fees altogether and capping tenant deposits<\/a> at six weeks’ rent, have been controversial in parts of the sector, while others have praised the proposals for providing a fairer deal<\/a> to tenants.<\/p>\n

However, Labour has come forward with a further suggestion to the current Bill, arguing that deposits should actually be capped at a maximum of three weeks’ rent.<\/p>\n

Melanie Onn, shadow housing minister, said in a tweet<\/a> last week: “Labour is fighting for a new three-week limit for rent deposits.<\/p>\n

“The current deal for private renters is unacceptable \u2013 Labour in government would do more to protect them<\/a>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Landlords might be worse off under this proposal<\/h4>\n

But the issue many have with Labour’s proposal is that it is too extreme, and unfair on landlords<\/a> who need the security of a full tenant deposit to cover the costs if the tenant leaves the property without paying the last month’s rent, or leaves it in a state of disrepair<\/a> – or both.
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\nHaving a six-week deposit goes some way towards mitigating this risk for landlords<\/a>. Furthermore, with many expecting letting agents to pass on the cost of the fees ban to landlords by upping their bill, hitting landlords with a reduced security deposit, although making things cheaper and potentially fairer for tenants, could be a step too far in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

David Cox, ARLA Propertymark chief executive, said: “As I\u00a0laid out to\u00a0the Public Bill Committee on Tuesday, the purpose of the deposit is to mitigate against unpaid rent<\/a> and damage to the property.\u00a0Many tenants do not pay the last month\u2019s rent which is then covered by the security deposit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis amendment won\u2019t allow for that, which risks leaving a landlord without the full final month\u2019s rent or repairs for any damage. It\u2019s not clear how this proposal of three weeks\u2019 deposit has been worked out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Bill is currently at committee stage having passed a second reading by Parliament, and is receiving submissions until 12 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opinions across the housing industry are decidedly mixed on the upcoming Tenant Fees Bill, which proposes a six-week cap on tenant deposits as well as a letting fees ban – but Labour wants deposits reduced even further. The Tenant Fees Bill is expected to cause a major shake-up in the private rented sector (PRS) for… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":14046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,59,6],"tags":[251,341,10],"class_list":["post-17578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buy-to-let-landlords","category-trending-news","category-uk-housing-market","tag-deposit","tag-newsletter","tag-tenants"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}