THE new Deregulation Act which received Royal Assent last month will, we are told, reduce the burden of legislation for businesses and individuals; one of its many provisions will impact upon residential landlords and tenants.

The Act will ‘outlaw’ retaliatory eviction of residential tenants; this is where a tenant makes a complaint about the condition of the property you rent or simply makes a request for repairs and the landlord responds by serving what is described as a ‘section 21 notice’ to terminate the tenancy. Under existing housing law this type of notice to quit is used to evict assured shorthold tenants without having to prove ‘fault’.

Under the new Act if you are an assured shorthold residential tenant and have complained about the condition of your property if your landlord does not respond to your complaint and then serves a notice to quit, you may refer the matter to the local housing authority.

If the housing authority agrees with the tenant about the property’s condition and proceeds to serve an enforcement notice on the landlord, the notice to quit will become invalid. There are circumstances where this will not apply: for example if the tenant has caused damage to property or if the premises are genuinely up for sale, but in most cases if the tenant has a genuine cause for complaint the landlord will not then be able to evict.

The new Act will also prevent a landlord from giving notice where it has failed to comply with certain statutory obligations. The Act also introduces an obligation on landlords to provide information about the rights and responsibilities of both the landlord and the tenant; again a landlord will be prevented from serving the ‘no fault’ notice to quit if it is in breach of this requirement.

It is anticipated that the new law will come into force on October 1.

•  Johanne Spittle is a director in the York office of LFDT specialising in property disputes