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Author: Sarah Jarvis

£4.1bn increase in Shared Ownership Funding

Stop Press!  £4.1bn funding announced for 135,000 new shared ownership homes

The Government and the Homes and Communities Agency has issued a prospectus inviting a wide variety of organisations to bid for a total of £4.7 billion of capital grants for the development of shared ownership (SO) and other affordable homes.

As an expert provider of advice to the housing sector, Sharratts’ lawyers are well versed in the rules and practice relating to grant funding, shared ownership development and disposals.  We look forward to working with you to make the most of the  opportunities provided by the new grant funding programme.  For further advice, please contact Sarah Jarvis, telephone: 01959 568 017 or email: sarahj@sharratts-london.co.uk  or Ben Halsey, telephone 01959 568014 or email: benh@sharratts-london.co.uk

Brief details of the new funding are set out below. 

The prospectus, entitled “Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme 2016 – 2021” (SOAHP 2016 – 2021), was issued on 13 April 2016.  A link to the prospectus (available on the Homes and Communities Agency’s web pages) is set out below:-

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shared-ownership-and-affordable-homes-programme-2016-to-2021-prospectus

The new funding is intended to provide 135,000 new SO homes, 10,000 rent to buy homes and 8,000 units of supported and/or older peoples’ rental accommodation.

SOAHP 2016 – 2021 funding will sit outside the current programme of Affordable Housing funding and represents a tangible sign of the current Government’s ongoing objective of supporting (affordable) home ownership, as evidenced by the fact that 88% of the new funding is allocated towards new SO accommodation.

Key aspects of SOAHP 2016 – 2021 are as follows:

  • funding is intended to support development of new homes outside of Section 106 Affordable Housing requirements on new developments sites 
  • funding is to be made available to a wide variety of potential bidders, not just existing registered providers of social housing – given the flavour of the prospectus document, it is clear that the Government wants to attract innovative collaborations between entities within the wider residential property (development) sector, including investment from and ownership by institutional investors
  • the move to increase SO housing delivery envisaged by the new funding is supported through other Government initiatives, including the removal of restrictions on the type of organisation which can hold an interest in SO in the long term, and the relaxation of eligibility criteria applicable to SO housing accommodation – in particular the household income thresholds that apply inside and outside of London 
  • funding will be administered by the HCA, through its investment management system (IMS)
  • Although it is not clear, it is understood that inside Greater London, funding will continue to be administered by the GLA 
  • modern and innovative methods of construction, including offsite construction, will be encouraged 
  • funding will be ‘regulated’ contractually though heads of terms and model contact documentation – those familiar with the existing HCA Affordable Housing Programme will no doubt find that similar model documentation is utilised – however draft heads of terms/model contract documentation for SOAHP 2016 – 2021 funding is yet to be made available
  • in addition, new funding will include requirements regarding ‘firm schemes’, ‘indicative schemes’ and ‘nil – grant’ schemes, again concepts which will be familiar to those already allocated grant funding by the HCA and/the GLA under existing programmes

New Partner

We are delighted to announce that as from 1st April, Paul Skelton, Head of our Asset Management Team has been made a Partner and that Sarah Jarvis has become an Equity Partner.

We trust that our clients and colleagues will join us in wishing them both well in their new roles.

Legal Secretary Vacancy

We are looking for an experienced legal secretary with a strong conveyancing background to work as part of our busy team.  This is a full time role working at our office in Brasted.  Car essential.  Excellent package for the right applicant.

Please send CV with covering email to sarahj@sharratts-london.co.uk

Plot Sales Vacancy

We currently have a vacancy for a full time plot sales fee-earner to join our existing team.  The successful applicant would have their own case load of shared ownership plots sales, private plot sales and resale and staircasing matters acting for existing Registered Provider clients.

Applicants would preferably need experience of dealing with plots sales and be keen to work as part of a busy friendly team. 

Excellent package and great career prospects for the right applicant.

CV’s should be emailed to Sarah Jarvis sarahj@sharratts-london.co.uk

New Form of prescribed Section 21 Notice

The Assured Shorthold Tenancy Notices and Prescribed Requirements (England) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/1646) (Regulations) were laid before Parliament on 9 September 2015. They will come into force on 1 October 2015.

The Regulations prescribe the form of notice to be given ending an assured shorthold tenancy under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 (section 21 notice).

They also provide that the landlord cannot serve a section 21 notice unless it has complied with its obligations to provide to the tenant:

  • An energy performance certificate.
  • A copy of a gas safety certificate.
  • The Department for Communities and Local Government’s booklet, “How to rent: the checklist for renting in England”.The changes apply in England.The new rules will apply to ASTs granted on or after 1 October 2015.They will not apply to a fixed term AST granted prior to 1 October 2015 even if, after the relevant date, the fixed term AST becomes a statutory periodic tenancy.However, from 1 October 2018, the rules will apply to any AST (except for the requirement for the landlord to provide prescribed information about the rights and responsibilities of the landlord and tenant under the AST) (section 41, DA 2015).Prescribed Form

The Regulations set out the prescribed form of section 21 notice (Form No. 6A). They add this new form to the forms set out in the Assured Tenancies and Agricultural Occupancies (Forms) (England) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/620).

Form 6A states that a section 21 notice cannot be used where:

Form 6A states that:

  • It must be used for all ASTs created on or after 1 October 2015, except for periodic tenancies that come into being after 1 October 2015 and which were fixed term ASTs created before 1 October 2015.

High Court clarifies Law on Notices to Complete

Effect of expiry of Notice To Complete

The High Court considered the effect of the expiry of a notice to complete and held that a defaulting seller, who had not complied with the buyer’s valid notice to complete, was not entitled a few days later itself to serve a notice of rescission terminating the contract.

The effect of the buyer’s notice making time of the essence of the contract was to fix the time for performance so that the seller’s failure to comply with that time for performance constituted a repudiatory breach of the contract.

Making time of the essence of the contract did not mean that time remained of the essence of the contract for a reasonable period after the expiry of the notice to complete, so that when the seller became ready, able and willing to complete it could itself claim repudiatory breach by the buyer for failing to complete on a date nominated by the seller.

The seller’s notice of rescission was ineffective to bring the contract to an end. The court ordered specific performance in favour of the buyer.

Hakimzay Ltd v Swailes [2015] EWHC B14 (Ch)

Condition 6 of the Standard Conditions of Sale (Fifth Edition) (SCS) entitles either party to give the other notice to complete any time after the time specified in SCS 6.1.2 (2.00 pm, unless changed by special condition 5) on the completion date. The party giving the notice to complete must itself be “ready, able and willing” to complete (SCS 6.8.1).

Service of a notice to complete makes time of the essence of the contract. If time is of the essence for performing a contractual duty, then the time limit is a condition of the contract, so that any breach is repudiatory. Any delay in performing the duty will be grounds for the innocent party to elect to terminate the contract (in addition to any other available remedy). Rescission does not happen automatically on expiry of the notice to complete.

JULY 2015 – KEY PROPERTY ANNOUNCEMENTS

SOCIAL HOUSING

PAY TO STAY:

Social housing tenants with household incomes of £40,000 and above in London, and £30,000 and above in the rest of England, will be required to pay a market, or near market, rent for their accommodation.

The government aims to make such tenants pay a fair level of rent, or make way for those whose need is greater.

Local authorities will repay the rent subsidy that they recover from high income tenants to the Exchequer, contributing to deficit reduction. Housing Associations will be able to use the rent subsidy that they recover to reinvest in new housing. The government will consult on and set out the detail of this reform in due course.

REVIEW OF LIFETIME TENANCIES

The government will review the use of lifetime tenancies in social housing to limit their use and ensure that households are offered tenancies to match their needs. This should help ensure the best use is made of the social housing stock.

REDUCTION OF SOCIAL SECTOR RENTS

The government will reduce rents paid by tenants in social housing in England by 1% a year for four years from 2016-17 to 2019-20, reducing expenditure on housing benefit and universal credit.

Residential service charge update

Residential service charge demand and the requirement to identify the landlord

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) (UT) has held that service charge demanded from a tenant under a residential lease had not become due, as the demand did not comply with section 47 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (LTA 1987).

A demand for rent or other sums payable to the landlord must contain the name and address of the landlord (section 47(1)(a), LTA 1987). The “landlord” means the immediate landlord. The sum will not become due until the information is provided.

T was a long leaseholder in a block of flats. The parties in this case had thought that Cameret Court Limited (CCL) was T’s immediate landlord and that Cameret Court Residents Association Limited (CCRAL) was a party to T’s lease only in its capacity as management company. However, this was incorrect and CCRAL had become T’s immediate landlord.

The landlord’s agents had served demands which contained the names and addresses of both CCL and CCRAL. However, the UT considered that it was unclear whether either of those companies was being identified as the landlord. If a demand provided the name and address of two or more different companies without identifying which of them was the landlord, it did not provide the required information.

Section 47(2) of the LTA 1987 therefore applied. However, to satisfy section 47, all that was required was for a notice to be given to T informing her that CCRAL was T’s landlord and provide its address.

This serves as a cautionary reminder of the strict requirements of section 47. Landlords should check that their practice accords with its provisions, as failure to comply could delay collection and lead to disputes.

Case: Tedla v Cameret Court Residents Association Ltd [2015] UKUT 221 (LC) (20 May 2015)

Do forms DS1 and DS3 operate to release charge?

The answer to this is that they do not. They are Land Registry documents required to remove the reference to the charge from the relevant registered title. Panel 6 in form DS1 is drafted as follows:-

“The lender acknowledges that the property identified in panel 2 is no longer charged as security for the payment of sums due under the charge”

The phrasing of the form makes it clear that the form can only be completed once the charge has actually been released. However, in a recent case Garwood The Bank of Scotland PLC [2012] EWHC 415 (Ch) the court considered that filing a form DS1 can operate as both evidence of discharge and an application to alter the register. In that case, the charge was considered capable of reinstatement on the title on the grounds that form DS1 had been submitted due to a “mistake”.

Here are some practical points which follow from this:-

  1. Release of a charge may not be delayed by not dating the form DS1/DS3 as it should already have been released.
  2. The fact that a DS1/DS3 has not been executed or supplied or registered does not necessarily mean that a charge has not been released.
  3. Release of the charge might be contingent on something happening such as completion of a transfer but should not be contingent on completing form DS1/DS3.
  4. Where a charge has been discharged prior to completion but form DS1/DS3 has been delayed or lost in the post then it might be possible to provide other evidence of discharge in order to allow the matter to proceed on the basis that the seller’s solicitor can still provide an undertaking to forward form DS1/DS3 once received.

Right to Buy Discount Increase

Right To Buy (RTB) Discount Increase

From the 6th April 2015 the maximum available discount for RTB matters will increase. The annual increase (6th April 2015 – 5th April 2016) is linked to the percentage rate change in the Consumer Price Index.

The discount for RTB matters 2015/16 are now:-

£103,900.00 for homes in the London Boroughs

£77,900.00 for homes outside of the London Boroughs

All transactions that commenced prior to 5th April 2015 will not be eligible for the increased discount and so will not need an updated s.125 notice.

Only applications made after 5th April 2015 will be eligible for the updated discount.