April Fool's Day - Deadline for Key Legislative Change

1st April is a day for Fools, a day of practical jokes and hoaxes. April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.

Of late it appears that the Government feel this day is significant and has bought Legislation into force on the 1st April, no pun intended we hope.

Client Money Protection (CMP)

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduced powers allowing the Government to bring in legislation making membership of an approved or designated CMP scheme mandatory and in 2018, the Government announced regulations that would require all letting agents in England to belong to an approved CMP scheme by 1 April 2019. The deadline for the regulations was then extended to 1st April 2021.

What does this mean?

By 1st April 2021, all Letting Agents in England must be able to prove they have CMP in place. The approved providers of CMP have been in place for almost 2 years and therefore, there should be no surprise that this is a mandatory requirement. It is also important to remember, regardless of whether working from home or not, that the transparency rules relating CMP must also be adhered to. This means that:-

1.Obtain a certificate confirming the agent’s membership of the approved or designated client money protection scheme;

2.Display the certificate—

• At each of the agent’s premises in England at which the agent deals face-to-face with persons using or proposing to use the agent’s services as a property agent;

• At a place in each of those premises where the certificate is likely to be seen by such persons;

• Publish a copy of the certificate on the agent’s website (if any), property portals and social media(links can be used);

• Produce a copy of the certificate to any person who may reasonably require it, free of charge.

A regulated property agent must notify each client in writing—

• if the agent’s membership of an approved or designated client money protection scheme is revoked; or

• if the agent ceases to be a member of a particular approved or designated client money protection scheme and becomes a member of a different approved or designated client money protection scheme.

The relevant local authority may impose a financial penalty in respect of the breach which must not exceed £30,000.00, however, there is a similar penalty for breach of the transparency requirements. However, please note that Trading Standards officers do not need to visit an agent’s office to enforce the regulations, remote inspections are taking place.

Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020

The regulations came into force on 1 June 2020, they applied to new tenancies, renewals and statutory periodic tenancies from 1 July 2020 and existing tenancies from 1 April 2021.

The date has approached 1st April 2021, very quickly with many landlords panicking over the looming deadline because they have not been able to ensure the certificates are in place due to poor planning, electricians not being available, Covid related reasons or tenants not allowing access.

The expectation that Government would extend the deadline was a non-starter, ARLA had already approached ministers in April 2020 making this very request and it clearly fell own deaf ears.

The Consequences?

Non-Compliance with the new regulations will mean the local authority can issue an enforcement notice. If the Landlord fails to rectify things, the local authority can enforce it by having the repairs completed billing the landlord or may impose a fine of up to £30,000.