ABSTRACT

After some 60 years of strict statutory security of tenure coupled with artifi cially-depressed rents, the Housing Act 1977 began the process of introducing elements of the market. But it was not until the Housing Act 1988 that the market was suffi ciently deregulated to encourage private investors to look at the possibility of offering houses to rent. The two codes in force determine the extent to which the parties remain subject to external (statutory) direction. The main factors were the ability to charge a market rent and to obtain possession in accordance with the contractual provisions. Current legislation between landlord and tenant for residential use is now concerned mainly with the circumstances in which a landlord may terminate a tenancy. In most cases, the tenant’s right to remain at the expiration of a notice to quit is at best limited. By virtue of recent legislation, tenants now enjoy greater safeguards in the assessment of service charges; certain tenants of long leasehold premises at low rents have rights to buy or to gain extensions to existing leases. There are provisions regulating the taking of deposits. There is a short note on the enfranchisement of long leasehold interests.