New housing standards for rental set.

The work that I Started before the last election to drive housing rental standards has been moved forward by the council.

Landlords in Bath and North East Somerset are being encouraged to apply for accreditation under the new West of England Rental Standard.

Bath & North East Somerset Council is promoting this new scheme that sets out specific requirements that landlords and letting or management agents in the private rented sector should reach – with the aim of driving up standards for tenants.

Through this scheme a single badge of quality accreditation will be awarded to all landlords and letting agents who meet a set of requirements. Nearly 18% of homes in Bath and North East Somerset are privately rented - that’s 13,730 privately rented homes. We want to drive up standards and help tenants to rent with more confidence, protecting them by exposing poor landlords and agents.

“The benefit to landlords and agents is that they will be easily recognised as complying with a recognised standards and procedures. However it is a voluntary scheme, and does not replace the enforcement tools available to the Council to make landlords comply with minimum standards.”

The West of England Rental Standard will endorse organisations and, through them, their members, not individual properties. The endorsed organisation will be expected to ensure that its members (individual landlords or agents) meet and continue to meet the membership requirements.

Letting agents and landlord organisations can now apply to join the scheme atwww.westofenglandrentalstandard.co.uk

Applications can be completed online and need to be returned with a fee of £300 by February 2016. The fee for following two years is £150 per year. This will be used to pay for the advertising and promotional costs of the scheme. The successful organisations will be announced in March 2016.

The West of England Rental Standard will replace a voluntary accreditation standard for rented accommodation that was agreed across the West of England some years ago. Bristol City Council will administer the scheme on behalf of the four West of England authorities for an initial period of three years.