|
Background to the Private Rental Sector
Anyone thinking of starting a letting agency and becoming a letting agent may be interested in the events leading up to the letting scene as it exists today. We therefore include this brief summary about the history of the private rental sector.
Period 1915-1960
The first Rent Act was passed in Parliament in 1915, just after the start of WW1. The purpose was to quell civil unrest by shipping workers agitating against what they considered to be unfair rent increases. Rent control was at that time more important than security of tenure and the early Acts reflected this.
The Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1920 replaced the 1915 Act and provided the foundation for the various 'Rent Acts' of the next four decades. The rent control scheme and provisions restricting recovery of possession by landlords were intended to be comprehensive, and by far the majority of lettings in the country were within the scope of the Act.
Some of the exceptions, such as the exclusion of some dwellings at low rents, survive in a similar form today. Application of the rules, however, was then restricted to unfurnished lettings.
The outbreak of WW2 halted the drift to decontrol that had taken place during the 1930s and rent control remained firmly in place. Subsequently, post-war housing shortages and slum clearance ensured that the sector continued to receive Parliament's attention. Security of tenure was extended to tenants with long leases (fixed terms of more than 21 years) by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part 1.
Following the end of WW2 in 1945, there was much movement across Europe, with people returning to their homelands following the strife, but also many seeking new horizons in foreign countries. This resulted in considerable demand for rented accommodation in the UK. As a result of this demand, some entrepreneurially-minded individuals spotted an opportunity of setting up a letting agency, in order to offer a service to would-be renters in finding them accommodation. At that time they were not called letting agents, but accommodation agents.
However not all of these accommodation agents appeared to have their customers best interests at heart, and the government found it necessary to pass what is, even to this day, the only act of parliament specifically aimed at controlling the practices of letting agents, The Accommodation Agencies Act 1953.
This statute was introduced originally as a short-term measure during a period when rental accommodation was in short supply. It was (and still is) aimed at firms offering properties to let and their dealings with persons seeking such accommodation. The purpose of the Act was to make illegal certain practices which were occurring at that time, including charging tenants to register their requirements, and supplying them with a list of addresses which were often worthless (taken straight from the phone book!).
Prior to 1945 no-one had even considered starting a letting agency. If you wanted to rent a property you went to an estate agency.
Although the letting agency business has moved a long way since those days, this Act is still in force and prosecutions by local trading standard offices still occur from time to time. You can read about the provisions of this Act in the Southcourt Letting Agency Training / Operating Manual.
During the 1950s, the Conservative government of the time attempted to stem the decline of the sector and stimulate the creation of new lettings in a series of measures of deregulation, beginning with the Housing Repairs and Rents Act 1954 and continuing with the Rent Act 1957, which extended the policy by decontrolling properties within a wider band of rateable values and by providing for decontrol when landlords obtained vacant possession of properties. Decontrol was not fully implemented until 1980.
continued...
© Southcourt Property Services 1997-2011
<-- back to Articles section
| 
