Housing and Planning Bill

Lord Young of Cookham Excerpts

Wednesday 20th April 2016 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Young of Cookham]

99ZA: After Clause 120, insert the following new Clause—
“Tenants’ associations: power to request information about tenants
After section 29 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 insert—“29A Tenants’ associations: power to request information about tenants(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations impose duties on a landlord to provide the secretary of a relevant tenants’ association with information about relevant qualifying tenants.(2) The regulations may—(a) make provision about the tenants about whom information must be provided and what information must be provided;(b) require a landlord to seek the consent of a tenant to the provision of information about that tenant;(c) require a landlord to identify how many tenants have not consented.(3) The regulations may—(a) authorise a landlord to charge costs specified in or determined in accordance with the regulations;(b) impose time limits on a landlord for the taking of any steps under the regulations;(c) make provision about the form or content of any notices under the regulations (including provision permitting or requiring a person to design the form of a notice);(d) make other provision as to the procedure in connection with anything authorised or required by the regulations.(4) The regulations may confer power on a court or tribunal to make an order remedying a failure by a landlord to comply with the regulations.(5) The regulations may include supplementary, incidental, transitional or saving provision.(6) Regulations under this section are to be made by statutory instrument.(7) A statutory instrument containing regulations under this section is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.(8) In this section—“relevant tenants’ association”, in relation to a landlord, means an association of tenants of the landlord at least one of whom is a qualifying tenant of a dwelling in England;“relevant qualifying tenant” means—a person who is a qualifying tenant of a dwelling in England and a member of the relevant tenants’ association, ora person who is a qualifying tenant of a dwelling in England by virtue of being required to contribute to the same costs as a qualifying tenant who is a member of the relevant tenants’ association; “qualifying tenant” means a tenant who, under the terms of the lease, is required to contribute to the same costs as another tenant by the payment of a service charge.””

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, Amendment 99ZA reflects an amendment that I moved in Committee. It received general approbation but I was advised by my noble friend the Minister to withdraw it so that it might have cosmetic surgery to make it slightly more attractive. I have now retabled it. In a nutshell, the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which I think I put on the statute book, allows a tenants’ association made up of “qualifying tenants” to seek statutory recognition. Such recognition provides the tenants’ association with additional rights over and above those enjoyed by individual leaseholders, including the right to be consulted about the appointment of managing agents and to be notified of works proposed by the landlord and to receive copies of estimates.

It has become apparent that tenants’ associations are finding it increasingly difficult to attain the number of members they need before they can apply for statutory recognition. This is because of difficulties in contacting absent leaseholders: that is, leaseholders who are not resident in a block—for example, buy-to-let investors. The amendment addresses that problem by requiring a landlord to supply to the secretary of a tenants’ association information which would allow contact to be made with absent leaseholders for the purpose of increasing the association’s membership and thereby its chances of obtaining recognition. That needs to be subject to the leaseholders’ consent to comply with data protection.

Amendment 99A seeks to address an irregularity concerning consideration of the recovery of a landlord’s costs from leaseholders as administrative charges. As noble Lords heard in Committee, at present, where a lease allows a landlord to recover the costs of legal proceedings through the service charge, a court or tribunal can decide to restrict the amount that can be recovered in that way. Courts or tribunals do not have similar powers where recovery of the costs of proceedings as an administrative charge is permitted by the lease. This can lead to unfairness, as the leaseholder will have no choice but to pay the cost of proceedings as an administration charge, regardless of the proceedings. Arguably, this discourages leaseholders from exercising their right to challenge the amount of a service charge, particularly as landlords’ costs in those proceedings could well exceed the amount in dispute.

The amendment would enable the tribunal or court to consider, on application, whether it is reasonable for a landlord to recover all or part of the costs. That is not to say that a landlord should not be able to recover the costs, but, rather, that the tribunal or court should be able to consider whether it is reasonable for them to do so. I am sure that noble Lords will agree that such an irregularity should be corrected. Amendment 138B simply brings these two amendments into force. I beg to move.

[Lord Beecham]

My Lords, we on the Opposition Benches entirely endorse the proposals made by the noble Lord, congratulate him on securing agreement from the Government and look forward to this debate ending very quickly.

--- Later in debate ---

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

My Lords, I hope that I can honour that approach. However, before I begin, I will take this opportunity personally to welcome back to her place my noble friend Lady Hanham. She is a much-valued colleague and has been much missed.

I thank my noble friend Lord Young for tabling these amendments, which have clearly generated support across the House in this very short debate. I appreciate that we discussed them in Committee, but it is helpful to be able to consider them once again today. They follow helpful interventions in both Houses, and I take this opportunity to thank both my noble friend and Sir Peter Bottomley in the other place for raising awareness of such issues.

As my noble friend eloquently set out, giving leaseholders the right to obtain contact information for other leaseholders in a shared block from their landlord, subject to their consent, will help those leaseholders fulfil their statutory right to have their tenants’ association recognised. Addressing the irregularity concerning the inability of courts and tribunals to restrict recovery of a landlord’s legal costs from leaseholders as administrative charges where they consider it appropriate will help to address a perceived unfairness in the current system, which I think we can all agree is the right thing to do. In conclusion, I am very happy to accept my noble friend’s amendments and I hope that they will be accepted by the House.

[Lord Young of Cookham]

I am very grateful to my noble friend.

Amendment 99ZA agreed.

Moved by

[Lord Young of Cookham]

99A: After Clause 120, insert the following new Clause—
“Limitation of administration charges: costs of proceedings
In Schedule 11 to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 (administration charges), after paragraph 5 insert—“Limitation of administration charges: costs of proceedings5A_(1) A tenant of a dwelling in England may apply to the relevant court or tribunal for an order reducing or extinguishing the tenant’s liability to pay a particular administration charge in respect of litigation costs._(2) The relevant court or tribunal may make whatever order on the application it considers to be just and equitable._(3) In this paragraph—(a) “litigation costs” means costs incurred, or to be incurred, by the landlord in connection with proceedings of a kind mentioned in the table, and(b) “the relevant court or tribunal” means the court or tribunal mentioned in the table in relation to those proceedings.

Proceedings to which costs relate	“The relevant court or tribunal”
Court proceedings	The court before which the proceedings are taking place or, if the application is made after the proceedings are concluded, the county court
First-tier Tribunal proceedings	The First-tier Tribunal
Upper Tribunal proceedings	The Upper Tribunal
Arbitration proceedings	The arbitral tribunal or, if the application is made after the proceedings are concluded, the county court.”