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The Housing Act 1988 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It governs the
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...
between landlords and
tenant Tenant may refer to: Real estate *Tenant, the holder of a leasehold estate in real estate *Tenant-in-chief, in feudal land law *Tenement (law), the holder of a legal interest in real estate *Tenant farmer *Anchor tenant, one of the larger stores ...
s. The Act introduced the concepts of
assured tenancy An assured tenancy is a legal category of residential tenancy to an individual (or individuals jointly) in English land law. Statute affords a tenant under an assured tenancy a degree of security of tenure. A tenant under an assured tenancy may n ...
and
assured shorthold tenancy The assured shorthold tenancy (AST) is the default legal category of residential tenancy in England and Wales. It is a form of assured tenancy with limited security of tenure, which was introduced by the Housing Act 1988 and saw an important defa ...
. It also facilitated the transfer of
council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...
to not-for-profit housing associations, which was then carried out partly through the system of Large Scale Voluntary Transfer.


History

Under the system of protected and statutory tenancies, tenants had the right to stay in a landlord's property almost indefinitely and pass the tenancy down to relatives. The difficulties landlords could face in trying to regain possession of their property created disincentives to owners' letting properties, which along with the fact that most
council house A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...
s had been sold caused a housing shortage. In 1979, a
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
government headed by Margaret Thatcher was elected. Thatcher sought to revamp the rented sector. At the time of the Housing Act 1988's enactment, the private rented sector accounted for less than 8 percent of homes in Britain, down from 76 percent in 1918, while
social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...
was about 30 percent. The
Department of the Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
's 1987 white paper ''Housing: the Government's Proposals'' set out goals of reversing the decline in rented housing and improving its quality; giving council tenants the right to transfer to other landlords if they so desired; targeting money more accurately on the most acute problems; and encouraging the growth of home ownership. According to the white paper, public housing authorities had failed to adequately accommodate the wishes of tenants, causing resentment and lack of tenant commitment to their homes; the government sought to alleviate this by giving tenants greater consumer choice, which would be accomplished by offering a variety of forms of ownership and management. Council tenants would be given the right to buy, and private landlords' rights would be strengthened. Specifically, under the new law, in contrast to the old fair rents system, landlords were allowed to charge whatever they liked, with only two exceptions. Rent could be challenged by assured shorthold tenants during the first six months of the tenancy, if a tenant believed his rent was more than the current market rent for his property, in which case he could refer the rent to the
Rent Assessment Panel Rent control in Scotland is based upon the statutory codes relating to private sector residential tenancies. Although not strictly within the private sector, tenancies granted by housing associations, etc., are dealt with as far as is appropria ...
for review. However, few would want to do this, given landlords' right to give a
section 21 notice In England and Wales, a section 21 notice, also known as a section 21 notice of possession or a section 21 eviction, is the notice which a landlord must give to their tenant to begin the process to take possession of a property let on an assured s ...
and end the tenancy. Tenants could also challenge the rent upon service of an annual notice to increase rent at the end of the fixed term; but landlords could avoid this by increasing the rent via a renewal tenancy agreement. The Housing Act also provided for two types of tenancy, the "assured" tenancy and the "assured shorthold tenancy". The latter is preferred by most private sector landlords, as it gives them the right to end the tenancy at any time after service of a section 21 notice. Typically, in a situation where there is a private landlord and a tenancy that began on or after 28 February 1997, and in which the house or flat is let as separate accommodation and is the tenant's main home, the property is being let on an assured shorthold tenancy.


Contents

The Housing Act 1988 dramatically changed three main areas of English property law in particular, namely: Rent regulation, Succession and Security of tenure. The Housing Act 1988 significantly reduced rent regulation, giving landlords the opportunity to charge whatever they liked for a property (something that is still the case today, despite growing calls from some for the return of rent controls of some description). The change also meant that the only party with the right to challenge the prices set by landlords are their tenants. There are only certain circumstances in which tenants may challenge the rent, which are during the first six months of an assured shorthold tenancy or upon service of a notice to increase rent, which can be used by landlords on an annual basis to raise the rent after the fixed term has come to an end. Tenants who believe their rent is higher than the current market value can, in the first six months of an assured shorthold tenancy, refer their case to a Rent Assessment Panel (an independent decision-making body sometimes known as a Rent Assessment Committee or Rent Assessment Tribunal) for review. Most tenants, however, are unlikely to take this step in light of the powers you have, as a landlord, to end the tenancy in accordance with Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988. What’s more, landlords now have the ability to increase rents without using the notice procedure, opting instead to do so via a ‘renewal’ tenancy agreement. The changes to rent regulation mean that tenants’ rights to challenge landlords over rent – outlined above – have less sway over landlords and are, as a result, used less frequently. The amendments made as part of the Housing Act, and the rebalancing of power this caused, are one of the major reasons rental prices have grown so rapidly since the late 1980s. As a result of the Housing Act 1988, the rules regarding succession became similar to those under the Rent Act, whereby only a spouse can inherit rental rights. The changes to the succession laws directly impact very few landlords – mostly because assured tenancies, which state that only a spouse can inherit rental rights, are uncommon in the private rental sector. Under assured shorthold tenancies, which also came into force in the late 1980s and now make up most tenancies in the private rental sector, there are no rights of succession. In other words, if the tenant dies, the spouse or other beneficiary has no right to remain in the property. With this type of tenancy, succession rights have become irrelevant precisely because the landlord now has the power to serve a Section 21 notice to evict the tenant through the courts.


See also

* English land law * Housing Act 1985 * Public housing in the United Kingdom § Stock transfer


Notes


External links


Housing Act 1988
{{Housing in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1988 Housing legislation in the United Kingdom