Landlord Legal Requirements: A Checklist for Social Housing Providers

In September 2023, the Housing Ombudsman reported its highest levels of non-compliance for complaint handling amongst social housing landlords. 

Over 40% of its Complaint Handling Failure Orders issued between April to June 2023 were not complied with. 

Complying with regulations has been a challenge for the social housing sector in recent years. 

There are several reasons for this, including the challenging economy and a deepening housing crisis.

But the most significant reason is that tenant expectations have risen and many new regulations have been introduced since the Grenfell Tower fire. 

Social housing landlords now face multiple layers of regulation - they need to follow most of the same laws as regular landlords, as well as those specific to their sector. 

This article provides a checklist of landlord legal requirements for social housing providers. You can use it to identify and address any gaps in your organisation’s compliance. 

Landlord Legal Requirements Introduced by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act

Photo by Sora Shimazaki

The Social Housing (Regulation) Act became UK law in July 2023. It introduces a range of new standards and laws that social housing landlords must comply with. 

Here is a summary of the most important ones:

✅ Register with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) 

RSH maintains a register of social housing providers in England. All social housing providers are required to be registered by law. 

Local authority providers are automatically registered, while private social housing landlords must apply to register. 

Once registered, RSH will collect information on:

• The types of properties your organisation owns.

• How much rent you charge.

• Results from your tenant satisfaction surveys.
  
  

You’ll also need to ask the regulator’s permission to sell properties. 

✅ Know the economic and consumer standards

Social housing providers are required to meet new economic and consumer standards. Failure to do so could lead to RSH taking action against your organisation - we’ll explain what this involves later in this article. 

There are three economic standards:

• Governance and Financial Viability: Ensures your organisation is well-run and financially viable. 

• Value for Money: Ensures your organisation makes best use of resources to meet its objectives.

• Rent Standard: Ensures rents are set in accordance with government policy for social housing rents. 
  
  

There are five consumer standards:

• The Home Standard: This ensures that the accommodation you provide, along with the associated repairs and maintenance, is of good quality.

• The Tenancy Standard: This ensures that the way you allocate properties and the terms of your tenancy agreements are acceptable.

• The Neighbourhood and Community Standard: This ensures you deal with issues relating to neighbourhoods, communal areas and anti-social behaviour.

• The Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard: This ensures your customer service and complaints services are good. It also ensures that your residents’ rights and involvement in your decision-making is upheld. 

• Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard: This compels you to measure and report your performance against Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs). These cover areas like repairs, safety checks and complaint handling. 

✅ Give residents a way to access information 

Social housing providers must provide organisational information to residents when requested. 

This works in a similar way to the Freedom of Information Act. The main difference is that the Act only obliges social housing landlords to respond to resident requests. 

Residents can requisition information about their landlord’s:

• TSM results.

• Accommodation, facilities and services. 

• Expenditure like executive pay, organisation income, management costs.

The timeframe in which landlords need to respond to tenant requests hasn’t been decided. However, it is likely to be similar to the 20 days required for Freedom of Information requests. 

✅ Perform and publish tenant satisfaction surveys

Landlords need to carry out surveys with their residents to see how they are performing on the Tenant Satisfaction Measures. This information needs to be shared with RSH and made available to residents. 

This allows social housing providers to see areas where they need to improve. It also allows RSH to collect data on the state of social housing nationwide and for residents to hold their landlord to account. 

These surveys need to cover 22 areas, across five main themes:

• Repairs.

• Building safety.

• Complaint handling.

• Respectful and helpful tenant engagement.

• Responsible neighbourhood management.

RSH has provided survey guidelines. The deadline for the first surveys to be completed and submitted to RSH is summer 2024. 

✅ Employ a health and safety lead

The new Act requires social housing providers to employ someone to be responsible for recommending and ensuring health and safety law compliance. 

✅ Be able to offer alternative accommodation

If a resident’s safety is threatened then you must offer them alternative accommodation. It must be provided under the same terms as their existing tenancy. 

This law doesn’t just apply to hazards related to consumer standards. For example, if the resident is at risk of domestic violence then you have a duty to provide them with alternative accommodation.

This means it’s a good idea to always have a few properties set aside to provide alternative housing.

✅ Ensure all managers and executives are qualified

The Social Housing Act requires all social housing managers and executives to have, or be working to attain, an Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) housing management qualification.

This must either be:

• Equivalent to a Level 4 or 5 Certificate or Diploma in Housing.

• A foundation degree from the Chartered Institute of Housing.
  
  

✅ Deal with damp and mould promptly

Awaab’s Law was added to the Social Housing Act after the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak.  It forces landlords to deal with health hazards - including damp and mould - within a specified timeframe. 

The timeframes have yet to be announced. Once it is put into force, tenants will be able to claim a breach of covenant if their landlord does not deal with health hazards when requested. 

General Landlord Legal Requirements

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The legal requirements listed below apply to all landlords. 

✅Use a tenancy deposit protection scheme

The Private Tenancies Act (2022) brought in a raft of new tenancy rules, including:

• Landlords have to give tenants 28 days’ notice of tenancy changes. This includes rent, rates, landlord contact details and tenancy length. 

• Landlords have to provide a detailed receipt for any cash payments paid to them by a resident.

• Tenancy deposits are limited to one month’s rent.

• Landlords need their resident’s permission to keep a deposit when a tenancy agreement ends and a new one begins. 
  
  

However, one of the most important changes introduced was that all landlords must place their resident’s deposit into one of several approved deposit protection schemes.

There are three schemes in England and Wales and you’ll need to sign up to one of them:

• Deposit Protection Service

• Mydeposits

• Tenancy Deposit Scheme

✅Make sure your home is fit for human habitation

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires landlords to ensure that their properties are fit to live in at the beginning of each new tenancy. 

This is determined by the 29 hazards used in the Housing Health and Safety Rating system (HHSRS). 

There are also nine other defects identified in the Act. They are:

• Building state of repair.

• Building stability.

• Serious problems with damp.

• Unsafe internal arrangement.

• Not enough natural light.

• Not enough ventilation.

• Problems with the supply of hot and cold water.

• Problems with drainage or lavatories.

• Problems with or a lack of facilities for preparing and cooking food and for the disposal of waste water.
  
  

If you are made aware of a hazard then you must fix it as soon as is reasonably possible. Failure to do so could enable your resident to take you to court. 

The Homes Act applies to tenancies less than seven years long. The Act does not apply to damage caused by acts of God or people renting under ‘license to occupy’ agreements. 

✅Get the correct licenses

Depending on the type of property you rent and where you are based, you might need a license. 

An HMO with five or more residents requires a mandatory license. However, your local authority may also require you to have a selective or additional license. 

Selective and additional licenses target certain types of properties or certain areas. They allow councils to maintain a balanced housing stock. 

For example, they can be used to ensure not too many properties near universities are used for student housing. 

It’s worth checking with your local council what licensing schemes they operate and if any of your properties fall into them.  

✅Comply with MEES

The Domestic Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard Regulations (MEES) state that all privately rented properties must achieve an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of E or more. 

Alternatively, landlords must spend at least £3,000 on energy efficiency measures aimed at achieving an E rating.

Until recently, the government was planning to increase this to a C and a spend of £10,000. However, this has now been scrapped. 

However, landlords in Wales will still have to reach a C rating, as the Welsh Parliament has announced that it plans to continue with the C-rating requirement. There is no minimum rating in Northern Ireland.

✅Carry out a gas safety inspection each year

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 state that landlords must keep gas appliances, pipework and flues safe. Part of this involves getting a new gas safety certificate for the property each year.

To do this, you’ll need to hire a Gas Safe registered engineer to perform an inspection on the property. They will carry out any repairs and maintenance required and then issue the gas safety certificate.

You should:

• Provide a copy of the certificate to the resident within 28 days of issue. 

• Keep a copy of the gas safety certificate for at least two years. 

• Give the latest gas safety certificate to any new residents when they move in. 

✅Carry out an electrical safety inspection every five years

The Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 state that landlords must have an electrical safety inspection every five years. However, this might be sooner if that’s what is recommended in a previous report. 

You’ll also have to carry out an electrical safety inspection before the beginning of each new tenancy in Scotland. 

You need to get a qualified electrician to carry out the inspection. After the inspection, the electrician will issue you with an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR).

You must:

• Complete investigations and repairs advised in the inspection within 28 days.

• Issue a copy of the report to the property’s residents. 

• Issue a copy of the report to new residents before they move in. 
  
  

Some councils may also require electrical appliances to be PAT tested.

✅Have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 state that landlords in England and Wales must have at least one working smoke alarm on each floor of each property. 

There should also be a working carbon monoxide alarm in rooms with a combustion-based appliance - in other words, any appliance that ignites a flame. 

You are required by law to ensure that each alarm is working at the start of every new tenancy. If your residents report a problem with a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide detector then it is up to you to replace it.

All smoke alarms in properties in Scotland and Wales should be mains powered. 

HMOs have different rules. They must have:

• A smoke alarm on every floor residents live on.

• A smoke alarm in each home.

• A heat alarm in kitchens and other high-risk areas.
  
  

The rules are also different in Scotland. You must have:

• A smoke alarm in the room most commonly used during the day.

• A smoke alarm in the main circulation space - in other words, the hallway or landing. 

• A heat alarm fitted in the kitchen.

✅Perform a fire safety risk assessment periodically

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 says that landlords in England and Wales must carry out fire risk assessments periodically. 

It’s a good idea to have a trained member of staff available to perform fire safety risk assessments or to hire a third party to do them for you. 

Examples of fire safety regulations include:

• All furnishings provided are rated fire-safe.

• Residents have clear access to an escape route.

• There is an escape route lit with emergency lighting (HMOs only). 

• One fire extinguisher on every floor (HMOs only).

• A fire blanket in each shared kitchen (HMOs only). 

• Fire doors are fitted (HMOs only).

• New residential high-rises taller than 18m must have two stairwells.
  
  

✅Comply with the new fire safety order

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, the UK government updated the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 with new regulations. 

These new regulations apply to England only. They aim to help emergency services provide an effective response if and when there is a fire in high-rise blocks of flats. 

In such buildings, whoever is responsible for resident safety should:

• Provide residents with fire safety instructions, including explaining the importance of fire doors. 

• Provide the local fire service with up-to-date electronic building plans that show nearby fire-fighting equipment.

• Provide information to the local fire service about the design and materials used in the building’s external walls.

• Perform monthly inspections on lifts and other equipment related to firefighting and evacuating the building. Any defects should be reported to the local fire service. They should be fixed as soon as possible. If it cannot be fixed within 24 hours then residents should be made aware of the problem and be given the results of the inspection.

• An information box should be located on-site. It should contain floor plans of the building and the name and contact details of the person responsible for safety there. 

• Signage that is visible in smoky conditions should be installed that identifies flat and floor numbers. 

• Flat entrance doors must be inspected annually and all fire doors must be checked quarterly. This is only required for buildings over 11 storeys high. 
  
  

The regulations also state that in multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more domestic premises, the responsible person must:

• Provide fire safety instructions.

• Explain the importance of fire doors. 

✅Carry out a Legionella risk assessment

Legionella is a bacteria that forms in water when it is kept in unhygienic conditions. It can cause Legionnaires’ disease, which can be fatal.  

The Control of Substance Hazardous to Health Regulations (2002) and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 both state that landlords should carry out legionella risk assessments on their properties. 

Legionella tends to form in static water, so if your taps are used regularly and you have electric showers and a combi-boiler the risk is probably low.  

What Happens If Social Housing Providers Don’t Comply?

The consequences for failing to comply with the regulations listed above are varied. They depend on the law you broke and the severity of the non-compliance. 

Here are just some of the possible repercussions. 

⚠️The Regulator of Social Housing can put your organisation on a performance plan

The Social Housing (Regulation) Act gives the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) greater powers to protect tenants from hazards in their homes. It does this by taking regulatory action against landlords that don’t meet social housing consumer standards.

If you don’t meet these standards then RSH will investigate resident complaints. If it has reasonable grounds to suspect that poor standards could put residents at risk then it may ask you to create and implement a performance improvement plan.

RSH can also:

• Issue unlimited fines.

• Perform surveys on properties.

• Order emergency repairs on properties where the landlord has failed to do so.

The three powers listed above are often only used if RSH believes the landlord has failed to adequately implement the performance improvement plan.

Residents could complain to the Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman investigates complaints and resolves disputes involving residents and social landlords. Some private rented sector landlords are also members of the scheme. 

The Housing Ombudsman can order a social housing provider to remedy the situation. This might be by:

• Apologising to the resident.

• Making the required repairs.

• Paying compensation.
  
  

It can also order the landlord to evaluate its policies and practices to improve its services and avoid failures being repeated. 

For example, the Ombudsman recently ordered Hyde Group to apologise to a resident and pay £3,350 in compensation after it failed to deal with a leak and anti-social behaviour at a property. 

The organisation was also asked to support the resident in making a claim against the landlord’s insurance for damage caused to personal belongings.

⚠️Your resident may ask your local council to perform an HHSRS inspection upon the property

As mentioned above, your resident can ask the local council to inspect their home for hazards under using the HHSRS.

If serious hazards are found then the council could force you to fix them, or do it for you and charge you for the work.

⚠️A resident could take you to court

If a resident requests repairs and you do not make them then they could take you to court. 

You’ll need to submit evidence that you were not asked, or that you made the repair or are planning to.

The court can order you to make the repair, pay compensation to the resident and even cover their legal costs. 

It’s likely a court will issue a claim under the Pre-Action Housing Repair Protocol. This is a way of getting residents and landlords to agree to a solution so the matter does not have to go to court. 

Comply with Repair and Maintenance Standards with EVO

Landlords face a range of legal requirements and complying with all of them is challenging.

A landlord’s core purpose is to provide quality accommodation and a good tenant experience. If they can do this, they will automatically fulfill many of their legal requirements. 

EVO can help you achieve this. Our end-to-end digital platform allows social housing landlords to outsource all of their repairs and maintenance with confidence.

We ensure that resident repairs are dealt with quickly and to a high standard. 

Here are some of the benefits of using EVO:

✔️Good communication: Residents can request repairs using a mobile phone app. They can send pictures and videos of the problem, so tradespeople can understand it more easily. Residents get regular updates on their repair.

✔️Efficient repairs: All repair requests are automatically assigned to the next available suitably qualified tradesperson. All tradespeople are approved and verified and all work has a 12-month warranty from EVO direct.

✔️Improve overall repair resolution: Our clients report an average repair resolution of 6 days, compared to the industry average of 28 days.   

✔️Centralised data management: EVO allows registered social housing providers to collect, store and analyse data on their properties and their repair and maintenance projects in one place. This allows employees and tradespeople to access the information they need, when they need it. It also enables management to analyse data to plan resources and make better decisions.

✔️Improve resident engagement and trust: Providing fast, stress-free reairs shows residents that you listen to them and act upon their requests. This makes them more likely to trust you and engage with you.

✔️Our customers are happy to recommend us: We have a net promoter score of +88. This means most of our clients are happy to recommend us to others. 

Contact us to find out how EVO can help your social housing organisation comply with regulations.