The Chancellor’s housing chandal is expected to reverse abuses in refunds paid to licensed landlord tenants, the Telegraph can reveal.
On Saturday, renters’ rights groups reported a “significant increase” in calls from tenants who had learned their homes were untenable.
Justice for Tenants, which supports tenants to take legal action, said calls about Revent payment orders jumped 26 percent since Wednesday, when Raheli returned to let her London apartment without proper documents.
Southwark, where the Chancellor’s property is located, generated more calls than any other council, the group said.
Al McClenahan, Justice for Employers’ Choice, said Ms Reeves’ mistake “did a lot to raise awareness of licensing and hiring orders to replace orders with anything else”.
MS REVES failed to get a rental license when she put her family’s home in Dulwich on the rental market last year as she moved with her family without the floor – Harvey Wheeler
On its website, Southwark Council guides tenants through illegal employment allowing them to contact justice for employers, boasting a 98 per cent success rate in obtaining tenants’ compensation.
With renters able to be charged a year on top of losing their license, this increase in interest is expected to cause a wave of expensive lawsuits across the country.
Mr McClenahan said: “Our support services have seen a significant increase in the number of inquiries from tenants who have received a landlord’s written notice of failure to license their property.”
“Now, most of these callers have correctly identified that their landlord does not have a license, but they do not understand it legally as their property is covered by the licensing laws.
“However, many affected tenants live in areas with additional HMO licenses or selective licenses, which means they can take action against their landlord – and wake up 12 ‘Reprent Replay.’
The chancellor is understood to have applied for the license on Friday, but could still face a claim for a fee of around £40,000.
Dulwich Wood in Dulwich sits in a “License Option” area where homeowners must obtain a permit costing around £1,000. Leaving without a single offense is a criminal offense punishable by an unlimited fine or £30,000 in fines, and tenants can recover 12 months’ rent.
There is currently no illusion that the employers of MS Reves intend to pursue the claim.
Awesome Irony
Political opponents, including the brilliant Sir James, were quick to point out the chancellor’s intransigence that he might be doing “more about tenants’ rights by breaking the law than doing it”.
The housing secretary said that these revelations come a week after the government passed the Employment Act, which he said “threatens to drive home owners out of the market, reducing the choice of employers”.
Kevin Hollinrake, chairman of the conservative group, said: “I can’t say that was his intention with the selective license not working in the first place, or not paying for it, but at least it would benefit some people.”
Writing in the Telegraph, Kemi Badenoch said he did not believe the chancellor should resign due to the expiry of his term, describing it as “an accidental minor inefficiency”.
But he added: “I agree a little bit about the schadenfrede watching this broadcaster, who promised ‘who promises a white government, faced with a slide from anonymous freebies to stolen mobile phones and unpaid excise duty.
“Every week brings a new scandal and a new definition of the sacred as to why this one doesn’t count.”
A Serious Claim of Ignorance
Emails published on Thursday revealed that Ms Reves’ husband, Nicholas Joicey, her maid, had been told by her agent that it was necessary for both of them to be unaware of the legal requirement.
This claim of ignorance may be a challenge to the preservation provided by SoutWark, since it appeared, we had a large public campaign in Layela Lankerten, with billboards, bus ads and notices in residents’ magazines.
Mrs. Reves now argues that her letting agent, Harvey and Wheeler, assured her husband that the license would be available later, to oversee the property agents where they apologized.
Despite these changing explanations, the Government’s independent adviser on vested interests, Sir Laurie Magnus, and the Prime Minister appeared quickly to continue. The former person “without evidence of bad faith”, and the latter said that there will be no more.
Southwark Council also said that enforcement action would only be taken if landowners failed to obtain a license within 21 days of receiving a warning notice, or if the property was unsafe.
This approach is independent of actions taken by other local authorities.
On Friday, opposition politicians urged Southwark Council to review the case, arguing that Ms Reves ‘rented her property for thousands of pounds a month, and every pound of that money was illegally obtained’.
In a joint letter to Sarah King, leader of the Labor council, the Lambeth and Southwark Conservatives said it would be “completely unacceptable” for Ms Reeves “to be condoned when others make low-level mistakes”.
