The United Kingdom obliged to the International obligation to provide, respect, fulfill and protect the right of housing under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) when it ratified the convention in 1976. The various issues that has been highlighted over the years pertaining to housing, like homelessness, security issues of the infrastructure, higher rent; etcetera has made the government realize that it is high time that they legislated a fresh piece of legislation, which would address all the necessities of the citizens. UK took progressive steps to realize the importance of the right to housing by exhausting all the possible means, financial and otherwise. In a situation of austerity, it is significant for the government to not take any backward step that would strip away the right unless utmost necessary. Any such backward decision must be supported by strict reasons. Yet, a growing number of families in the country are not secured with a safe and affordable housing that the convention promises. In recent times, housing has become unaffordable and the legislations pertaining to housing have weakened the safety aspects of the English households. Therefore, the loopholes of the housing legislations pertaining to health and safety needs to be critically evaluated. In addition, the impact of Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) on a tenant’s ability to seek redressal needs to be determined.
On June 2017, a fire at Grenfell Tower in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea took the lives of 80 people. In another instance, 6 people died in a fire at Lakanal House on June 2009. Following the investigation report of the incidents, the coroner inquired with the local and national government, as well as with the fire brigade department and Fire Sector Federation to let them know about the cause of the accidents. In their report, the coroners pointed out several concerns that led to the accident, like the inadequate raining of the fire risk assessors, inadequate guidance pertaining to fire risk assessment and cited certain recommendations for reviewing the Housing regulations. Since the fire tragedy of Grenfell Tower, the central government have responded several times for a giving effect to a public judicial inquiry pertaining to the reasons behind the fire. In addition, it tried to issue a Green Paper that strives to focus on social housing in future, a critical review of building regulations and safety and an interim remedy for building prone to encounter fire related accidents.
The intensity of the issue pertaining to the Grenfell tower tragedy has made the government to focus on the provisions of the then housing regulations. Since 1960 there has not been a better scope for discussing about rights and obligations in the area of housing. Since the Victorian age legislations dealing with property and housing is taken under consideration as to whether they are fit for human habitation. Section 12 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885 paved the way for this change. A link between statutory protections and specific agreements (most preferably Tenancy) was established. Concerns relating to the health and safety of the tenants pertaining to housing regulations were considered. The year 1885 of the Victorian period was the initiation point of regulatory intervention between the relationship of a landlord and tenant. In today’s time laws pertaining to housing regulation can be found in a range of statutes and also in the common law. Public health has been the center of focus always; however, certain additional objectives has been included like health and safety of particular occupiers of a particular property, recognizing that a particular type of property is dangerous and requires control for the occupant’s benefit. The early focus on public health portrays that the local authorities were selected to be the regulator of housing regulations. In the modern system that has developed in the 19th century, it is quite conventional for local authorities to be selected to be the regulator of the housing regulations. The present authorities are required to consider the hazards of the local housing issues and must priorities actions which have the most serious impact on public health and safety.
In addition to legal rights and obligations of the parties to a housing property, the rapport between the landlord and tenant is extremely significant, should stand upon trust. On account of trust, the parties are required to indulge into communication and must act in accordance with each other’s concerns. The Tenant’s Charter which is a part of the Housing Act 1980 includes the Right to information and consulting pertaining to the relationship of the landlord and tenant. However, it has several drawbacks pertaining to the matter.
Long leaseholders hold stronger legal rights regarding the management and control of their property and therefore have their rights guaranteed under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. In this Act the lessee who is dissatisfied with the control and management of the property can move to the First Tier Tribunal Chamber to hire a manager to take over the management of the properties. The regulatory framework that ensures long lease taken up by a lessee is considered over the issues of the occupier due to the greater financial stake held by the leaseholder. Yet, none of the rights laid down in the Landlord and Tenant Act is straight-forward and unambiguous which makes the lessees continue to demand for improved regulations and rights. Section 8 of the Act lays down the provision that certify the fitness for human habitation in a particular housing. It states that the tenancy agreements must include clause that would claim for the fitness of the property for human habitation and an undertaking from the landlord that the property is fit of dwelling while the tenancy period is ongoing. While section 10 lays down several criteria of the fitness quotient. This makes the two provision significant yet the fact that they do not apply to properties with a rent higher than £80 in London and £52 at other places makes them redundant. The fact that these provisions made in the Victorian Age has still not been revised.
The Housing Act 2004 lays down the provisions for the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), which provides the method of ensuring the basic standard of health and safety since the 20th century. HHSRS is neutral of any tenure and can be used for assessing hazards in rented housing and owner occupied property. One of the issues of HHSRS is that its obligation can be enforced by regulatory agencies while the local government manages it. R v Cardiff CC exp Cross the court of appeal in relation to the obligation of the previous Housing Act, the Act of 1957 held that a local authorities would not be able to serve a notice itself, which is a drawback. It has be held that this judgment is also applicable to the Act of 2004. At present, the principle laid down in R v Cardiff CC exp Cross is held to be a good law and it strives to restrict the operation of HHSRS pertaining to local authority housing. While HHSRS involves 29 kinds of housing hazards which needs to be taken into consideration for maintaining safety of the housings. However, there is a lack of statutory mechanism for individuals to initiate investigation, which is considered as the impotency of the enforcement against local authority tenants. This proves that there are serious loopholes in the mechanism and therefore revisions need to be made as to who can file an official compliant.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 directs the local authorities to inquire into the complaints of statutory nuisance and take necessary actions. This includes the action that are to be taken against hazardous and unsafe housings that have the potential to harm or injure the environment. Premises that have the potential to constitute statutory nuisance are scanned under this Act. Although this Act suffers from the similar prejudices as the HHSRS, which cannot be enforced by the local authorities, however there is another way through which actions can be taken. It is argued under section 82 of the Act that individuals can file a complaint to the Magistrate’s court who has the power to issue an abatement notice.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005 replacing the Fire Precautions Act 1971 empowers the individual occupying the premises to take charge when there is a fire accident instead of waiting for the fire authorities. The Act requires the individual occupants to ascertain and identify the potential fire risks of a housing and take charge of it. The statute demands regular fire risk assessment, especially when there has been alterations or renovation of an existing building. Failure to comply with the provisions of the statute constitute offence under the Act, which is enforced by the Fire & Rescue Authority. However, the responses of the residents and survey participants have not laid down a good picture of the enforcement of the statute. Negative responses like lack of fire drills, fire safety instructions, emergency contact centre and equipment, checklist for emergency action items have been reported. It has also been reported that the residents have no idea whether to stay or leave the premises when fire breaks out and whether to use the lift at the time of the accident. The residents have not been briefed or made to carry out drills for false fire alarm. These drawbacks pertaining to the appropriate enforcement of the statute needs urgent revision.
The Building and Fire Safety Regulations has been of great importance since the fire accident of Grenfell Tower as it lays down the legal provisions for ensuring fire safety in new and modified buildings. It ensures that the housings are safe for habitation. The Housing Act 2004 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005 being the two most important legislations strive to promote collaborative working environment between local Housing regulatory authorities and Fire & Rescue Authorities. However, there are drawbacks as to the lack of consensus among experts as to the requirements of the Building Regulations concerning fire safety and cladding for particular cases. The Deregulation Act of 2015 somewhat prevents the Landlord to evict a short-hold tenant if the tenant points out the adverse condition of the property.
To argue in favour of the necessary changes, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation and Liability for Housing Standards) Bill needs to be enacted to ensure that a property is fit for human habitation in accordance with the modern safety standards. The bill strives to address and provide redressal for the drawbacks of all the statutes concerning housing safety, which is currently prevalent in the private laws that governs the safety standards that are needed to be ensured by a landlord for his tenants. The Bill considers modifying the provisions relating to the obligation of the landlord to make necessary repairing on behalf of the tenant along with updating the criteria for certifying the standard of fitness for habitation in a housing. Although the enactment of the Bill is whole-heartedly supported, yet the fact that the safety and security of the citizens in their homes should be dealt by the state directly is emphasized on.
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) has strived to reform the legal justice system of the United Kingdom. It has offered a wide range of discretionary power to the courts pertaining to various disputes. It has abolished the Legal Services Commission and replaced it with Legal Aid Agency, a new agency under the Ministry of Justice. With the advent of Legal aid help, it has tried to resolve the various issues like helping citizens to enforce their rights relating to housing, its benefits, their disputes with the landlord and any other form of distress so that such distress does not take the shape of a disaster. However, it is evident that legal aid have led fewer households to receive adequate and timely support until the dispute has met the vulnerability criteria of the agency and the agency has felt like extending their helping hands.
Therefore, in this context certain practical recommendations are laid down, like abolition of capital limit for the Legal Aid agency, access to housing advice and representation service in all the courts, revision of the provision of funding of Legal Aid for the applications of judicial review and creation of statutory duty of the local authorities to provide tenancy related services.
It is to be taken into consideration that Legal Aid agency has excluded many people from receiving its support due to the hefty costs that comes with it. This is a severe draw lack of the LASPO, which was establish to provide redressal to the tenants in dispute with their tenanted premises.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above analysis of the current housing laws, it can be deduced that the laws are inefficient in providing a foolproof safety and security standard and redressal authority for the citizens. The Housing Act of 2004 does not support the local authority to take action, which is similar to that the Environmental Protection Act of 1990. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 although lays down several guidelines for a safer housing experience, yet the response of the public is severely negative towards it as they claim to have never receive any assistance or guidance out it. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) tries its best to support the citizens with its legal aid service, yet only a handful receives it. Hence the enactment of a new housing law is desired which would have an exhaustive list of standards that would be required to be followed by the landlords and owner occupier to ensure fitness of a premises for human habitation. In addition to the enactment of such a law, the fact that a powerful authority should enforce the law is indispensable.
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R v Cardiff CC exp Cross (1983) 6 HLR 1
‘Closing The Gaps: Health And Safety At Home’ (Kent.ac.uk, 2018) <https://www.kent.ac.uk/law/research/projects/current/amended_Closing%20the%20gaps.pdf> accessed 26 November 2018
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