Purpose

Legislation came into force in 2016 enabling local authorities to issue civil penalties of up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution for a number of specified offences under the Housing Act 2004. The use of civil penalties has recently been extended to include a breach of one or more duties specified within Regulation 3 of the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 (“the Electrical Safety Regulations”). This paper seeks approval to amend the existing civil penalties policy to reflect the new duties brought in under these Regulations.

Drivers for the proposed enactment

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 amended the Housing Act 2004 and introduced a range of measures to assist Local Authorities (“LAs”) to tackle rogue landlords and managing agents, including the use of civil penalties of up to £30,000. In November 2017 Cabinet approved the policy for Crawley Borough Council’s use of civil penalties.

The Electrical Safety Regulations, recently made under section 122 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, impose both duties and powers on LAs. The powers include that LAs may impose a financial penalties on private landlords where they have breached a duty under Regulation 3 of the Electrical Safety Regulations.

In summary, Regulation 3 requires landlords to:

•        ensure that electrical safety standards are met during any period when their residential premises is occupied under a specified tenancy

•        ensure every electrical installation in the residential premises is inspected and tested at regular intervals of no more than 5 years by a qualified person

•        obtain a copy of the Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) and supply a copy of it to each existing tenant within 28 days and a copy of it to the LHA within 7 days of receiving a request

•        further investigate or remedy any work identified within the report within the timeframe specified

Regulation 11 states that where a LHA is satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that a private landlord has breached a duty under Regulation 3, they may impose a financial penalty (or more than one in the event of continuing failure) in respect of that breach.

It should also be noted that the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations do not enable the Council to prosecute as an alternative to issuing a financial penalty in respect of a breach of those regulations.

Description of Issue to be resolved

The provisions of the Electrical Safety Regulations are now in effect. As there is already a policy in place (agreed by Cabinet in November 2017) regarding the use of civil penalties, Democratic Services approved the following approach.

This report requests that the Head of Strategic Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing, approve the amendment of the existing Civil Penalties Policy to reflect the new powers of the Council.  This is in accordance with generic delegation 7 of the Strategic Housing Sub-Delegation Scheme. If approved, this will be entered into the Strategic Housing Sub-Delegation Scheme and published as a Significant Operational Decision (SOD).

When making the decision, regard should be had to the following government guidance:

•        Rent repayment orders under the Housing and Planning Act 2016 dated April 2017;

•        Civil penalties under the Housing and Planning Act 2016 updated on 06/04/2018; and

•        Guide for local authorities: electrical safety standards in the private rented sector dated 1 April 2021. dated 4/2021.