Housing Conditions: Tenants' Rights 6th ed

Housing Conditions: Tenants’ Rights is the definitive legal guide to bad housing conditions in rented accommodation in England. It covers the private rented sector, council housing and homes let by housing associations or other social landlords. Previously titled Repairs: Tenants’ Rights, it has long been recognised as the essential text for all housing advisers and lawyers dealing with disrepair and other adverse conditions affecting residents in rented housing accommodation.

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, coming into force in March 2019, is the biggest advance in tenants’ rights relating to housing conditions for a generation. Initially, it will require all new lettings to be of homes fit for habitation and that they be kept fit. It will further come to apply to virtually all residential tenancies whenever granted.

This new edition takes a broader approach to housing conditions in the light of the new Act and this is reflected in the new title and also a significant revision and restructuring of the content. The text of the book is now concerned more generally with problems arising from the poor condition of much rented housing. It deals with fitness for human habitation and with health and safety issues going well beyond the traditional concern of lawyers and other advisers with the topic of repair/disrepair (while also dealing with those issues).

Housing Conditions: tenants’ rights outlines what tenants can do to obtain better conditions themselves, but also what local councils, responsible for housing conditions in their areas, can do to help them achieve improved conditions.

Contents include:

• landlords' obligations
• enforcing rights
• private tenants: involving the local council
• funding
• proceedings under the Environmental Protection Act 1990
• criminal proceedings and rogue landlords
• infestations, hazards and absence of amenities
• compensation
• Practical step-by-step guidance on how to bring a disrepair claim
• Extensive set of precedents with worked examples used at all stages of the court process, extracts from legislation and helpful guidance on technical information