A Conservative MP believes a proposed law giving tenants the ability to sue negligent landlords over homes that are not fit for habitation is an unnecessary burden.
Philip Davies said the new bill proposed by Labour MP Karen Buck would “put a huge burden on landlords”.
Davies, a landlord and a tenant, said during a debate on the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill: “I don’t think this particular bill is necessary to achieve what I would like to see.
“The overwhelming majority of landlords, and I will put myself in this category, want to do the right thing and wouldn’t ever dream of renting out a property that isn’t in a fit state to be rented out and want to comply with every regulation that’s introduced.”
The bill was introduced in June and would amend the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 which requires all private rented accommodation to be “provided and maintained in a state of fitness for human habitation”.
The change in the law would give legal rights to tenants to take action against the landlord where properties are in an unfit condition.
The bill resurrects a law from 1885 which has been rendered obsolete by rent inflation.
While there are statutory obligations on most private landlords to repair the structure of their properties and repair installations, tenants only have the right to a home that is fit for human habitation if the rent is less than £52 per annum, or £80 in London, for a contract since 1957.
The Law Commission in 1996 and the Court of Appeal in 1997 both called for the rent caps to be removed, but successive governments have failed to do act.
Buck, the MP for Westminster North, told MPs that a change in the law was necessary due the dramatic rise in the number of people renting property.
She said: “Many landlords do maintain their properties well and do fulfil their obligations.
“Yet the fact remains, standards in the private rented sector are poorer than those in owner-occupation in particular.”
The private rented sector in the UK is now larger than the social rented sector, but has some of the worst property standards.
The 2013/14 English Housing Survey found that the private rented sector had the highest proportion of non-decent homes (30%) and was more than twice as likely to fail the decent home standard due to poor thermal comfort and have a higher rate of disrepair.
Meanwhile, a survey by the Citizens Advice Bureau earlier this year revealed that 740,000 households in England live in privately rented homes that present a severe threat to tenants’ health.
The debate for the bill will resume on 29 January 2016.
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