{"id":339,"date":"2024-09-12T15:18:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T14:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/?p=339"},"modified":"2025-02-07T12:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T12:14:11","slug":"rros-the-rrb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/2024\/09\/12\/rros-the-rrb\/","title":{"rendered":"RROs &amp; The RRB"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key take-aways for tenants from the <a href=\"https:\/\/bills.parliament.uk\/bills\/3764\">draft RRB<\/a>, published 11\/09\/2024:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>RROs can be for TWO YEARS\u2019 rent (doubled)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tenants have TWO YEARS in which to make an application (doubled)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SUPERIOR landlords are liable for RRO applications<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Officers of LIMITED COMPANY landlords may be personally liable for RRO applications<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Repeat RRO offenders face 100% awards<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a796, \u00a7100,&nbsp; \u00a7101 &amp; \u00a7102 of the new bill details changes to a number of Acts that govern RROs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u00a796<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>This section amends the The Housing and Planning Act 2016 (HaPA), the main Act governing RROs<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Further offences are added to the list that are available for RRO action:<br><br>\u2022Following amendments to the Housing Act 1988 that create new offences (16J offences):<br>\n<ol>\n<li>Misusing a possession ground (16J1)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Breach of restriction on letting (16J2- relating to the new 16E2 in HA 88)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Continued breaches after imposition of a Civil Penalty Notice (CPN) (16J3)<br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022Following new offences created in the RRB\/Act:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>Continued breaches with regard to any new Landlord Redress scheme<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provision of false or misleading information for the Private Rented Sector (PRS) database<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Continued breaches under the above<br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>\u00a796(3)&nbsp; removes the time limit for making a RRO application for the offences 16J1 &amp; 16J2<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A similar deadline extension applies to Local Authorities (LAs)<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>S44 of HaPA is amended so that it is a mandatory consideration in setting a RRO award to consider whether the landlord has previously had\n<ol>\n<li>another RRO made against them<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Or a CPN<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026so not just a relevant criminal conviction, as previously. This helps equalise tenant-initiated RROs with Civil Penalty Notices (CPNs) issued by Local Authorities (LAs): CPNs can be issued to officers of a Ltd company that commits an offence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"6\">\n<li>S45 extends the same s44 amendments to LAs<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>S46 is then amended to build on s44 amendments to force tribunals to make the maximum award against a landlord where they have been issued a CPN or had a RRO made against them for the same offence- whether or not at the same property\/tenancy<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u00a7100<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The re-wording of s40 has some highly relevant details:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Superior landlords will be liable for RRO applications: this wipes out the effect of the <em>Rakusen<\/em> judgment from the Supreme Court which overcame this principle first established by Flat Justice in the Goldsbrough case<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>S43 is aligned with the new possibility for RROs to be made against multiple landlords<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cin respect of\u201d instead of \u201cduring\u201d takes in payments outside the tenancy or period applied for, e.g. arrears that were paid later. This overcomes, e.g. the difficulty we had in <em>Kowalek<\/em> where, perversely, rent arrears that had been paid after the tenancy had been determined were not available for a RRO award<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tenants can apply for 2 years of rent payments (instead of 12 months)<br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cRepay\u201d is changed to \u201cpay\u201d: this is significant as some landlords had argued that e.g. rent paid by a parent for their student child was not rent that could be subject to a RRO. This is clarified further \u201cpaid by or on behalf of the tenant\u201d<br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Amendments at s43 &amp; the addition of s46A allow for RRO awards to be made against multiple landlords for the same property- but not the same period<br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u00a7101<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Company officers are liable where the landlord is a company. This is huge and will destroy the pervasive use of shell companies as landlords which are then wound up when there is a RRO made in order to avoid any consequences for the crime. Ditto Rent-to-Rent (R2R) companies.<br>Exactly what Flat Justice has been asking for.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u00a7102&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aligns the availability of a \u201dreasonable excuse\u201d under the new scheme in which superior landlords are liable under s72 of The Housing Act 2004 (HA) for both tenants and LAs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Comment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is clear the government is determined to improve the effectiveness of RROs having seen the widespread uptake of the legislation by tenants bringing their own applications &#8211; rather than waiting for a LA to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important feature will be the liability of officers of companies that are operating as landlords. This has been a central theme of our lobbying and its enactment will have a profound impact on the criminal landlord fraternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The doubling of the rental period available for a RRO and the delay for making an application will draw many more RRO applications from tenants. Other loopholes for landlords have been closed down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RROs have been bashed about a bit in various appeals since the HaPA but have now been promised a new set of teeth. Tenants and RRO Applicants particularly will have a lot to smile about in this new bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key take-aways for tenants from the draft RRB, published 11\/09\/2024: \u00a796, \u00a7100,&nbsp; \u00a7101 &amp; \u00a7102 of the new bill details changes to a number of Acts that govern RROs \u00a796&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362,"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getrentback.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}