New powers for tenants associations

Tenants’ associations will be able to increase their membership and the chance of wielding more power thanks to new laws.

Secretaries of associations now have the right to seek contact details of other leaseholders in a shared block – as long as those leaseholders have agreed to their information being made available. The new powers have been introduced under Section 130 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and could lead to membership numbers of associations rising, which increases their chances of statutory recognition. Section 130 states that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has the power to make regulations imposing duties on a landlord to provide the secretary of a tenants’ association with information about leaseholders.

As part of the regulations, landlords are also required to seek the consent of a leaseholder to provide their information and identify how many tenants have consented to those details being shared. Landlords also face time limits for forwarding the information.

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