Consideration of Bill, as amended in the Public Bill Committee
[Relevant documents: The First Report of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, The Regulation of Social Housing, HC 18;and oral evidence taken before the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee on 6 February 2023, on The Regulation of Social Housing: Follow-up, HC 1127.]
New Clause 1
Social housing leases: remedying hazards
‘After section 10 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 insert—
“Implied term as to remedying of hazards
10A Remedying of hazards occurring in dwellings let on relevant social housing leases
(1) This section applies to a lease of a dwelling if—
(a) the dwelling is in England,
(b) the lease is a relevant social housing lease, and
(c) section 9A—
(i) applies to the lease (see section 9B), or
(ii) would apply to the lease if the provision in section 9B(3) did not exist.
(2) There is implied in the lease a covenant by the lessor that the lessor will comply with all prescribed requirements that are applicable to that lease.
(3) The Secretary of State must make regulations which require the lessor under a lease to which this section applies to take action, in relation to prescribed hazards which affect or may affect the leased dwelling, within the period or periods specified in the regulations.
(4) Regulations under subsection (3) are enforceable against lessors only through actions for breach of the covenant that is implied by subsection (2).
(5) In any proceedings for a breach of the covenant that is implied by subsection (2), it is a defence for the lessor to prove that the lessor used all reasonable endeavours to avoid that breach.
(6) For the purposes of this section a lease is a “relevant social housing lease” at any time when—
(a) the lessor under the lease is a registered provider of social housing, and