Documentation consultation

Landlords and letting agents may soon have to give more documents to tenants on move-in, following a new government consultation.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities completed a survey of private rented sector tenants this week. The objective: to find out which documents they were given at the start of their tenancies, and what other information they would have liked to have.

Under the current rules, tenants must be given the following documents at the start of an assured shorthold tenancy in England:

• A valid Gas Safety Certificate
• An Electrical Installation Condition Report
• The property’s current Energy Performance Certificate
• The latest version of the government’s How to Rent guide
• Details of how the tenant’s deposit is protected
  

Tenants were asked whether they were given these documents on move-in, and whether they would have liked to have access to other information up front, such as whether the landlord has any convictions for housing-related offences.

The DLUHC survey is part of a wider consultation on private rented sector reform ahead of a White Paper due next year. The government is considering bringing in a national landlord register in England that could potentially give tenants more immediate access to information on their landlords – something that already exists in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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