Your rights where there’s an infestation; Renters’ Reform Bill and coalition; Grenfell – silent walk 14 June

 

Infestation and Pest Control 

Because the rent is well below the local average, Sophie and her housemates accepted aged fixtures, well-worn furnishings and chipped bits, without complaint. But when faced with an infestation of carpet beetles, they expected the landlord to pay for essential fumigation.  The landlord disagreed, saying the tenants should split the costs between them. If they didn’t wish to do so, the landlord said, they could give notice and move on. After three weeks of impasse, Sophie contacted Renters’ Rights London.

But we have no expertise in the level of risk to human health which pests such as carpet beetles might represent. The answer to that question is key. A trained pest control technician is the best person to advise on every aspect, including the remedy.

If rodents had infested the house at any point, the answer would be obvious. It’s common knowledge that mice and rats represent a hazard to human health. Thanks to the The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, landlords must ensure that rental property is free from hazard at the start of a tenancy and maintained hazard-free throughout. That would mean paying for pest control. The landlord also has to ensure that any entry points; holes in external walls or gaps in skirting boards are properly sealed off, to resolve the problem in line with the law.

If a landlord fails to rectify a hazard such as vermin infestation swiftly, contact your local council’s residential environmental health team and ask them to inspect your home. The council has powers to ensure the landlord acts. Moreover, the council officer’s report, which is free of charge, is powerful evidence if you exercise your right to prosecute the landlord or wish to seek damages later.

But adult carpet beetles can fly so one could enter through an open door or window. Unfortunate but no-one’s fault.  And a single carpet beetle will lay up to 100 eggs, close to a food source. Their eggs take a couple of weeks to hatch and the larvae feed for up to 10 months.  It’s the larvae of carpet beetles that do most of the damage. They thrive on a rich variety of animal products including pet food, hair, fur, dead skin, dead insects, wool, cotton and other natural fibres. An adult beetle will emerge roughly one month after the larvae turns to pupa. That’s quite a long lifecycle.

A pest control company is best placed to answer questions about whether the infestation might pre-date the start of Sophie’s tenancy. The landlord would be responsible for the cost of fumigation had the infestation been present at the start of the tenancy.

Sophie’s house is one where people moved in at different points, though. She moved in seven months ago but one housemate has lived there for two years. Sophie doesn’t want to negate her own liability by passing all the costs to him. Doing that might very well damage household dynamics, creating a different set of problems.

Renters’ Reform Bill

The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities [DHLUC] has confirmed more details of the Renters’ Reform Bill, announced on 10 May. The assurance that government will honour their promise to end section 21 evictions is good news indeed, especially for London renters.

Back in 2017, research from JRF confirmed that more than two-thirds of evictions under section 21 affected Londoners. In 2021, a survey commissioned by Generation Rent found that one in 12 renters had been given notice without any reason in the preceding year. Known as ‘no fault eviction’, the insecurity built into the current terms of renting through section 21 leaves too many renters living in a permanent state of anxiety. Housing precarity is a health issue.

Now, this Bill “will deliver the biggest change to renters law in a generation”. The Renters’ Reform Bill will

• extend the Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector for the first time
• prohibit so-called ‘no fault’ evictions under Section 21 evictions

but will also include measures

• to strengthen landlords’ grounds for repossession.

Ideally, all grounds, including any new grounds, will be discretionary. That would give a court the power to decide whether or not to grant a possession order.  After all, the decision to deprive someone of their home is a very serious matter. One which should not be taken easily or lightly.

You can keep up to date with developments through the Renters’ Reform Coalition. If you have not already signed up, do please join the campaign?

 Grenfell Tower – Memorial Service and Silent Walk  

The fifth anniversary of that most terrible night when 72 people died as fire gutted Grenfell Tower is fast approaching. ‘Grenfell’ has become shorthand for tragedy and injustice. For residents of other blocks on the Lancaster West Estate and for everyone living in unsafe housing, it’s also a reminder that ‘Grenfell’ could have been them.

Today, there are 1,099 blocks of flats in London with risks so serious that they require immediate evacuation in the event of fire. Off those, 842 are high rise blocks.

Earlier this year, Peter Apps, Assistant Editor of Inside Housing, shared some of his headlines from the ongoing Grenfell Inquiry.

As these headlines explain, government’s focus on deregulation meant that no minimum standards were set for statutory risk assessments before the fire. But evidence that the system was insufficient kept growing.

Combustible cladding on new buildings over 18 metres tall was banned back in 2018. Much more recently, the specific type of cladding which allowed the blaze to spread so rapidly was outlawed entirely. Metal composite panels with an unmodified polyethylene core can never again be used on any building of any height. But no criminal prosecutions have yet been brought following the findings of the Grenfell Inquiry and structural change has not yet happened.