The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government have been busy overnight and have now issued updated COVID-19 guidance for landlords, tenants and local authorities and new guidance for understanding the possession action process in England and Wales. The Housing Minister Robert Jenrick has also issued a press release in relation to evictions entitled ‘New protections for renters over duration of national restrictions’.
Dealing initially with the Guidance for landlords, tenants and local authorities the main thrust of the updated guidance relates to the repairs, maintenance and health and safety. The guidance continues to say that repairs, essential and non-essential maintenance and other visits can still go ahead as long as they are undertaken in line with public health advice and as long as an occupier of a tenanted property is not self-isolating due to actually being ill or have been asked to isolate by the NHS. This goes back to the maintaining of social distancing, cleaning, face coverings etc. to which we have all now become accustomed. The guidance recognises that some people may want to take additional precautions and therefore if the landlord is prevented from carrying out routine maintenance such as the gas safety inspection then local authorities should take a pragmatic approach and that they should not be unfairly penalised where COVID-19 restrictions have prevented them from carrying out their obligations. Work on the property should not take place in all but the most extreme emergencies if someone has tested positive or is self-isolating. Where landlords are not prevented from carrying out their obligations then they should proceed with maintenance and repairs.
The possession action guidance is updated to reinforce that from 5 November 2020 bailiffs have ‘been asked’ not to enforce evictions during the new national restrictions and that between 11 December and 11 January bailiffs had been asked not to enforce evictions. This therefore means that there is little likelihood of eviction before mid-January at the earliest. The Housing Minister’s press release clarifies that evictions may still continue where a property is illegally occupied; there is fraud inducing the grant of a tenancy, anti-social behaviour or death of a tenant leaving an unoccupied property. Strikingly it ends by stating that they intend to introduce an exemption to these restrictions for extreme pre-Covid rent arrears, which means that until this becomes exempt those evictions are off. There is no indication of when the serious rent arrears exemption will be introduced but it would be presumed shortly.
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