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New How to Rent Guide Released - but should it be used and when?

27th July 2021

You will know already that in order for a landlord to rely on a section 21 notice as a means of terminating an assured shorthold tenancy created after 1 October 2015, the landlord must have first served upon the tenant the then current How to Rent Guide booklet in the prescribed form. A failure to do so will have the effect of making invalid the section 21 notice served and any possession action based thereon ineffective.

The government, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, in its undoubted wisdom, do from time to time amend the How to Rent booklet and thus keeping track of which is the correct version to be served can be problematic for landlords and their agents.

The latest instalment of this every changing story is that on 21 July 2021, a new version of the How to Rent booklet was published on the gov.uk website. But is it actually a new version and should you replace what you have been serving with it?

The ‘new’ version of the How to Rent booklet is an ‘Easy Read’ version, a document designed to be better understood by those tenants who suffer from learning difficulties. The document is therefore to be well received but should you serve this version in place of the full version (the full version, as of the date of this article, was last changed on 10 December 2020) and if not, should you serve this Easy Read version on every tenant?

There is no guidance from the government on either of the above points so common sense and a practical approach with full consideration of the legislation is required here.

Section 3 to The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 requires that the landlord of an AST must give the tenant under that tenancy “the version of the document entitled “How to rent: the checklist for renting in England”, as published by the Department for Communities and Local Government, that has effect for the time being”.

Whilst the government have not said that the Easy Read version supersedes the December 2020 version, common sense is that it does not. The Easy Read version does not contain all of the information that is in the full December 2020 version, but it is a scaled down version with larger spacing and pictures to make it easier to digest. Accordingly, our view is that the version to be provided to the tenant in order to comply with section 3, is the full version of the How to Rent booklet, given that the Easy Read version does not contain all the same information as the full version.

However, should you serve both the full version and the Easy Read version just in case your tenant has a learning difficulty? The argument here is that a failure to provide (when requested certainly but possibly in any event) the Easy Read version of the booklet to a tenant who needs it as a result of a disability will almost certainly amount to discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 - for failure to make a reasonable adjustment - it being reasonable to provide a document in existence designed for the person with a disability.

Given the above the easy and safe answer is either:-

  • Always, without fail, serve the full version of the How to Rent booklet on every tenant every time whether or not they say or you are aware that they have a learning difficulty. You must do this to comply with section 3 of the 2015 Regulations referred to above.

  • You can also serve, as a matter of course, the new Easy Read booklet too. That covers all possible bases and you cannot be wrong. However, it is more paper being 48 pages long (or 24 double sided) in addition to the 18 page standard version.

  • Alternatively, your correspondence and pre-letting process/checklist should make clear to any prospective tenant that an Easy Read version of the How to Rent booklet is available and that, should they request it, it will be provided to them at no charge.

It is possible that the government may clarify this point at a later stage, but for the moment the above is seemingly good sense. Whatever approach you elect to take, DO NOT send only the Easy Read version of the booklet.

If you have any queries whatsoever, please get in touch with a member of the team on 01435 897297 or info@kdllaw.com.

Disclaimer

This legal update is provided free of charge for information purposes only; it does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such. No responsibility for the accuracy and/or correctness of the information and commentary set out in the article, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed or accepted by any member of KDL Law or by KDL Law as a whole.

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