The Housing Act 2004:  A SUMMARY OF THE MAIN PROVISIONS

The Housing Act 2004 is a key piece of legislation that will protect the most vulnerable in society and help create a fairer and better housing market. It will also strengthen the Government's drive to meet its 2010 decent homes target.

The Housing Act 2004 received Royal Assent on Thursday 18 November 2004.

• New Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) replaces the current housing fitness standard. This will help local authorities target the worst-condition properties, often housing some of the most vulnerable people.  This new system focus’s on the hazards that are most likely to be present in housing and assess them on the potential risk they pose;
• Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) with mandatory licensing for larger, higher-risk HMOs and discretionary powers to license smaller, multiple-occupied properties ;
• Enabling local authorities to tackle low housing demand and the difficulties of anti-social behaviour through new powers to selectively license private landlords;                                                                                                 
• The introduction of Home Information Packs to bring together, at the start of the home buying and selling process, important information (such as a home condition report) which, at present, is collected piecemeal in the weeks and months after an offer has been accepted; 
• Changes to the Right to Buy Scheme to tackle profiteering, including extending the initial qualification period for right to buy from two to five years and extending from three to five years the period during which discount must be repaid when the property is resold; 
• Enables local authorities to apply for an Interim Empty Dwelling Management Order ("interim EDMO") where a dwelling has been vacant (for at least 6 months) long-term;
• Provisions to ensure that where landlords, or their agents, require tenancy deposits, those deposits will be safeguarded by a scheme sponsored by the government; 
• Allows a Residential Property Tribunal to impose a Rent Repayment Order (a financial penalty) upon a landlord who, without reasonable excuse, manages or lets a property which ought to be licensed under Part 2 or 3 of the Act and is not licensed.

Further information on issues raised in the Housing Act 2004 will be covered at a later date.