1st April is a day for Fools, a day of practical jokes and hoaxes. April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.

Of late it appears that the Government feel this day is significant and has bought Legislation into force on the 1st April, no pun intended we hope.

CLIENT MONEY PROTECTION (CMP)

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduced powers allowing the Government to bring in legislation making membership of an approved or designated CMP scheme mandatory and in 2018, the Government announced regulations that would require all letting agents in England to belong to an approved CMP scheme by 1 April 2019. The deadline for the regulations was then extended to 1st April 2021.

As ARLA members Torbay Property Management have always had Client Money Protection to ensure that your money is always safe - remember to check if your agent has CMP!

ELECTRICAL SAFETY STANDARDS IN THE PRIVATE RENTED SECTOR (ENGLAND) REGULATIONS 2020

The regulations came into force on 1 June 2020, they applied to new tenancies, renewals and statutory periodic tenancies from 1 July 2020 and existing tenancies from 1 April 2021.

The date has approached 1st April 2021, very quickly with many landlords panicking over the looming deadline because they have not been able to ensure the certificates are in place due to poor planning, electricians not being available, Covid related reasons or tenants not allowing access.

The expectation that Government would extend the deadline was a non-starter, ARLA had already approached ministers in April 2020 making this very request and it clearly fell own deaf ears.

THE CONSEQUENCES?

Non-Compliance with the new regulations will mean the local authority can issue an enforcement notice. If the Landlord fails to rectify things, the local authority can enforce it by having the repairs completed billing the landlord or may impose a fine of up to £30,000.