Understanding Renters' Rights - Navigating Responsibilities between Tenants and Landlords

WHEN it comes to renting, understanding the division of responsibilities between tenants and landlords is crucial for maintaining a harmonious living environment and ensuring legal compliance. Stephen Chouldry, a property expert at Frontline Collections, and with over 20 years experience provides some expert advice on key issues such as mould and damp, break-ins, and maintenance and repairs.

• Mould and Damp... Landlord's Responsibilities... Landlords are generally responsible for addressing structural issues that contribute to mould and dampness, such as:- leaks, poor ventilation, and heating problems. They should ensure that the property is watertight and well-maintained to prevent these issues from occurring.
  

• Tenant's Responsibilities... Tenants should manage their living habits to prevent mould and damp, such as:- regularly ventilating rooms, avoiding drying clothes indoors without adequate ventilation, and promptly reporting any signs of mould or damp to the landlord.
  

• Break ins... Landlord's Responsibilities... Landlords must ensure that the property is secure at the start of the tenancy. This includes:- providing sturdy locks on doors and windows. If a break in occurs due to the landlord's failure to maintain adequate security measures, they may be responsible for rectifying the damage.
  

• Tenant's Responsibilities... Tenants should take reasonable steps to secure the property, such as:- locking doors and windows when the property is unoccupied. If a break in occurs due to tenant negligence, such as:- leaving doors unlocked, they may bear some responsibility.
  

• Maintenance and Repairs... Landlord's Responsibilities... The landlord is responsible for maintaining the property's structure and exterior, ensuring that heating, plumbing, and electrical systems are working correctly, and addressing any wear and tear that impacts the property's habitability. They must also carry out repairs in a timely manner once notified by the tenant.
  

• Tenant's Responsibilities... Tenants are responsible for treating the property with care, conducting themselves in a manner that doesn't cause damage, and promptly reporting any repair needs. Minor maintenance, such as replacing light bulbs or smoke alarm batteries, often falls under the tenant's remit.
  

• Understanding Potential Fines:...The Financial Consequences for Landlords and Tenants.
  

• Landlord Fines... Failure to Address Health and Safety Issues: Landlords can face significant fines for neglecting serious health and safety problems, such as mould, damp, or structural issues. The fines vary depending on the severity and duration of the neglect and can escalate if the issues lead to tenant health problems.
  

• Non-Compliance with Repair Obligations... Ignoring or delaying essential repairs, especially those that affect the property's habitability, can result in fines. Local authorities can issue improvement notices, and failure to comply can lead to prosecution and fines.
  

• Lack of Proper Licensing... In areas where rental properties require licensing (eg:- HMOs), operating without a licence can lead to hefty fines and the prohibition of renting the property.
  

• Deposit Protection Violations... Landlords who fail to protect tenancy deposits in a Government approved scheme or do not provide prescribed information to tenants within the stipulated time frame can be fined up to three times the deposit amount.
  

• Tenant Fines... Damage to the Property... Tenants who cause significant damage to the property beyond normal wear and tear can be fined or required to pay for the repairs. The costs can be deducted from their security deposit, or they might face additional charges if the damage exceeds the deposit amount.
  

• Illegal Subletting... Tenants who sublet the property without the landlord's permission, especially if it violates the terms of their lease, can face fines or eviction. The financial penalties depend on the lease terms and local regulations.
  

• Abandonment of the Property... Tenants who abandon the property without proper notice or before the lease term ends may be liable to pay the remaining rent due or face fines for breach of contract.

Stephen Chouldry, property expert at Frontline Collections says:- "Both tenants and landlords have vested interests in maintaining the property and upholding their respective responsibilities. Clear communication, understanding legal obligations, and cooperation are key to ensuring that any issues are resolved efficiently and amicably. For tenants, it's crucial to be aware of your rights and responsibilities to protect yourself and your home. Landlords should understand their duties to not only comply with the law, but also to foster a positive relationship with their tenants, which in turn can lead to longer tenancies and fewer issues. Should you encounter a situation where responsibilities are unclear, seeking legal advice or consulting with a property expert can provide clarity and direction. Remember, a well maintained property benefits everyone involved, creating a safer and more enjoyable living environment."

New action to tackle ethnic and other biases in medical devices

THE Government has today announced action to tackle potential bias in the design and use of medical devices, as it accepts recommendations from the UK's 1st independent review.

The Department of Health and Social Care commissioned senior health experts to identify potential biases in these devices and recommend how to tackle them.

The Government fully accepted the report's conclusions and has made a series of commitments, including:- ensuring that pulse oximeter devices used in the NHS can be used safely across a range of skin tones, and removing racial bias from data sets used in clinical studies.

Minister of State, Andrew Stephenson said:- "I am hugely grateful to Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead for carrying out this important review. Making sure the healthcare system works for everyone, regardless of ethnicity, is paramount to our values as a nation. It supports our wider work to create a fairer and simpler NHS."

Ministers agree that unless appropriate action is taken, ethnic and other unfair biases can occur throughout the medical device life cycle, from research, development, and testing, to approval, deployment and post-market monitoring, as well as in the use of devices once deployed.

As a result, significant action is already being taken to overcome potential disparities in the performance of medical devices. This includes:-

• Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) now requests that approval applications for new medical devices describe how they will address bias
  

• NHS guidance has been updated to highlight potential limitations of pulse oximeter devices on patients with darker skin tone
  

• The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is currently accepting funding applications for research into smarter oximeters.

The Government will also:-

• Work with the MHRA to ensure regulations for medical devices are safe for patients, regardless of their background, while allowing more innovative products to be placed on the UK market. This includes:- a commitment to ensure pulse oximeters are safe and effective for all patients, with work underway to mitigate any inaccuracy in the devices.
  

• Drive forward work to remove racial bias in datasets, including:- ensuring diverse skin tones are included in data used by researchers for clinical studies.
  

• Support ongoing work with NHS England to upskill clinical professionals on issues including:- health equity.
  

• Work with partners to improve transparency of data used in the development of medical devices using Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as AI products which influence clinical decisions.

The Government appointed Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, professor of public health at the University of Liverpool, to lead the review. Professor Whitehead has vast experience in tackling health inequalities, and for many years has led the work of the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Centre for Policy Research on the Determinants of Health Equity.

The review followed concerns that pulse oximeters; widely used during the Covid19 Pandemic to monitor blood oxygen levels; were not as accurate for patients with darker skin tones, which could have led to delays in treatment if dangerously low oxygen levels in patients with darker skin tone were missed. However, the review found no evidence from studies in the NHS of this differential performance affecting care.

The medical devices review focused on three areas; optical devices such as:- pulse oximeters, AI-enabled devices, and polygenic risk scores (PRS) in genomics.

Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, chair of the review said:- "The advance of AI in medical devices could bring great benefits, but it could also bring harm through inherent bias against certain groups in the population, notably women, people from ethnic minorities and disadvantaged socio economic groups. Our review reveals how existing biases and injustices in society can unwittingly be incorporated at every stage of the lifecycle of AI-enabled medical devices, and then magnified in algorithm development and machine learning. Our recommendations therefore call for system wide action, requiring full Government support. The UK would take the lead internationally if it incorporated equity in AI enabled medical devices into its Global AI Safety initiatives."

The review also recommended ways of developing bias free medical devices in the future and to improve standards globally.

Dr June Raine, MHRA chief executive, said:- "The MHRA acknowledges that inequities can exist within medical devices and we therefore welcome the publication of Dame Whitehead's independent review. We are highly committed to ensuring equitable access to safe, effective and high-quality medical devices for all individuals, and the recommendations set out in this report will support and strengthen the impact of our ongoing work in this area. We are committed to working collaboratively with Government, regulatory bodies, healthcare professionals and stakeholders to address these issues effectively."

There is ongoing work to ensure healthcare is equitable. In recent years, the Government has created schemes providing targeted support for the cost of living and the Covid-19 pandemic and established the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), a Government unit dedicated to reducing negative health disparities across the country. We have commissioned work like Core20Plus5,a national NHS England approach to inform action to reduce healthcare inequalities, established the Maternity Disparities Taskforce, and invested £50 million in health inequalities research for local authorities.