The legislation will make it necessary for all landlords to be accredited and enables notices to be issued if a property fails inspections carried out by the Environmental Health department. Notices that are ignored could result in the landlord being taken to court.
States Members approved the proposals for minimum standards on rented accommodation in principle last year and this week agreed that the law should come into force from Monday 1 October.
Similar laws have been in place in the UK for a century.
Environment Minister John Young said: ‘I have been told the team will have the resources in place to be able to regulate this without additional resources.
‘They have re-organised over recent years to try to focus on these important areas and they are going to operate it with a light touch.’
He added that there was a danger that some rented properties could become ‘lost’ if landlords did not choose to carry out works to meet minimum standards but that he expected these to be exceptions rather than the norm.
Deputy Young said the minimum standards were important and that ‘what happens next is for another day’ adding that the move was ‘six years in the making’.
A ‘Rent Safe’ scheme, which grades landlords, has already been introduced to highlight to tenants the Island’s good and bad landlords.
Landlords with fewer than three stars – which means they do not meet minimum standards – are not displayed on the website.
The minimum standards were approved by 39 votes to nil.
