RLA WEBSITE LAUNCHES A DREAM SOLUTION TO A LEGAL NIGHTMARE

The Residential Landlords Association has launched a new website feature to guide baffled landlords through the maze of new Housing Act and fire safety legislation.

The interactive Unique Property Selector will answer questions, solve problems, filter out un-necessary and confusing documentation, and point private sector property owners towards essential information.

The launch - on www.rla.org.uk/hmo - comes in response to a regularly high volume of enquiries about the Housing Act that flood in to the RLA help desk and onto the Forum page of its website.

“It’s a very complex piece of legislation which is being implemented in different ways in different parts of the country,” says Lee Dribben, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association - whose members own over 100,000 private rented properties throughout the UK.

“Landlords who rent out ‘houses in multiple occupation’ – typically shared student houses – know they might have to licence them but don’t necessarily know how properties qualify or fall within the definition of an HMO.

“Then, when they have sorted that out, even the licence application form can be a nightmare.”

So, with the help of a Government grant, the RLA’s online solution centres on a uniquely designed feature that offers landlords 85 questions and a total of 166 choices to identify the property classification, deliver a ruling on whether or not it’s a licensable HMO and point towards the relevant legislation.

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The site then links into over 50 additional pages of documentation, regulations and legislation to find what applies to that type of property – including health and safety, licensing requirements, prohibition orders, planning law, fire risk assessment and fire safety compliance.

“Without this sort of help a landlord often doesn’t know where to turn and can waste a lot of time reading material that doesn’t relate to their type of property,” says Lee Dribben.

“We hope the Property Selector will save their time, focus on what is relevant and clearly show what regulations they have to comply with.”

Landlords can use the feature by logging onto www.rla.org.uk/hmo.

The Residential Landlords Association is a leading national organisation for professional landlords, residential property investors and self-managers – with members owning over 100,000 properties in the UK private rented sector. The range of members’ services - on www.rla.org.uk - includes legal advice, insurance, financial services, credit referencing and training. For tenants there is www.tenantdocs.co.uk – where tips include a download of the RLA’s award-winning Plain English tenancy agreement. The RLA operates a web-based property search on www.homes2rent.net and publishes the bi-monthly Residential Property Investor magazine.


* The campaigning stance of the Residential Landlords Association makes it the UK’s most active dedicated national voice for private sector residential landlords - and its own Code of Practice lays down expected standards that are also in the best interests of tenants.

* Current campaign issues include lobbying for a common sense approach to the implementation of Housing Act licence conditions and fees relating to houses in multiple occupation, Fire Safety regulation, amenity standards, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme and housing benefit payments as well as a re-think on capital gains and rollover tax relief for professional landlords.



* For a summary of RLA campaigning go to: www.rla.org.uk/rla.exe/landlord/lobbying/rla_lobbying_summary.htm