Changes to rental sector ‘must apply to everyone’

  • Deputy calls for earlier registration of landlords and tenants
  • Comments follow ministers proposals to overhaul the rental market
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LANDLORDS and tenants have been ‘let down’ by the Housing Minister, according to a States backbencher who says he is disappointed with proposals to modernise the Island’s rental sector.

Yesterday a package of proposals to overhaul the rental market were published jointly by the Housing and Health Ministers.

The document included plans to introduce a law that would set minimum standards for rental accommodation in the Island –something Deputy Montfort Tadier proposed to the States last year.

The proposition was passed by 32 votes to six.

If the Assembly gives the go-ahead when it is debated in the autumn, the draft Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) Law could also give ministers the power to allow environmental health officers to ban properties from being rented, ‘name and shame’ rogue landlords on a public database, and even carry out essential maintenance work themselves at the expense of property owners.

But now Deputy Tadier, who has also previously called for the creation of a compulsory register of landlords and the introduction of controls to set maximum rent levels, has called on Housing Minister Anne Pryke to reconsider her proposals.

The Reform Jersey member said he was concerned about the absence of ‘a simple system of registration for all landlords and properties before homes are able to be let out’.

The proposals do include scope for a voluntary accreditation scheme, which could include a ‘star rating system’ similar to the Health Department’s Eat Safe Guide for Restaurants.

Deputy Montford Tadier

Deputy Tadier said: ‘What is being suggested is a convoluted system of voluntary accreditation and retrospective inspections – only when a complaint has been made.

The report itself admits that accreditation will not capture bad landlords, who will simply choose to avoid such a scheme.

‘It would be much better for quality controls to be implemented at the beginning of tenancies, or when a landlord registers a new property, as complaints and inspections can be off-putting for tenants and distressing for landlords.’

Deputy Tadier added that it was also ‘highly unsatisfactory that certain sectors will have better regulation than others’.

He cited a section of the proposal document which states: ‘A regulatory framework for social housing will be introduced to provide comfort above that available to the private sector.’

The politician, who ran for Housing Minister in 2011, said: ‘This is quite frankly bizarre.

‘It cannot be right that private renters who pay the full market rate should have less protection than social renters paying up to 90 per cent of the market rate.

However, Deputy Tadier said the voluntary accreditation scheme could help to ensure that the millions of pounds the States pay to private landlords to house Islanders on low incomes every year is being spent correctly only if accredited property owners are selected.

BEHIND front doors in town and dotted around the Island lies a reality that would shock many in one of the wealthiest places on earth.

That reality made it onto the front page of the JEP in 2008 when fire ripped through Broadlands, a lodging house on Mont Fallu in St Peter.

The old farmhouse was home to 50, mainly Portuguese, people who lost everything in the blaze. Luckily, no one died.

Either legislators were unaware of this situation or did not care enough to act.

Broadlands was, however, a wake-up call and the Fire Service argued for a change in the rules to ensure that all so-called multi-occupancy dwellings were treated the same and could be inspected to ensure that they were safe. Perhaps a quirk of the Island’s multi-layered housing laws, the law meant that some lodging houses were within the scope of regulations and others were not. The situation was highly unsatisfactory.

Yesterday, Housing Minister Anne Pryke announced a raft of proposals to improve the quality of rental accommodation – and about time too.

Among other things, the draft Health and Safety (Rented Dwellings) Law sets out a number of sanctions which should give the relevant authorities effective means to ensure bad landlords step into line.

Deputy Pryke said that it was ‘vital that the Island provides affordable, good standard and secure accommodation for tenants’.

They are words that have been uttered before by previous Housing Ministers, but it is a great credit to the minister that she and Health Minister Andrew Green have translated these words into action.

Today, Deputy Montfort Tadier, who last year persuaded the States to introduce a new law that would set minimum standards for rental accommodation, said that the law did not go far enough. He argues that, as proposed, it is too reactive and relies on tenants making complaints before action is taken. He says that rental properties should be inspected before they can be put on the market.

Such a scheme would be an administrative monster and expensive to maintain, but some level of pre-emptive action must be part of a compulsory system of regulation which does not rely on tenants complaining, especially given that they may fear their complaints could jeopardise the security of their tenure.

Housing is a source of great tension and division in this Island. It is vitally important that we get this right, and soon.

Ministers say that they are committed to building a fairer Island. This is a good test of their resolve.

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