1 April 2022:  

I think everyone will remember this sad day – the energy price cap increased and was the start of our current cost of living crisis. The cap rose by 54% overnight and affected the vast majority of households across the UK. However, there was an advancement in the accounting world with the making of tax digital.   

28 April 2022: 

Building Safety Bill obtained royal assent (meaning it will be in the final stage of becoming law through parliament). This will mainly include changes to fire safety regulations for HMO’s. I have linked the gov.uk article with more information on this here.   

10 May 2022: 

The Queen’s Speech: This particular speech touched a lot on the economy and plans to grow this, as well as tackling the cost of living crisis. These speeches are ones to write in the diary as there can be a lot of legislative changes that can affect the property market. 

31 May 2022: 

Letting agents and landlords are now required by law to include additional material and information when advertising a property. This will include council tax bands, rent price and deposit amount.  

1 October 2022: 

New regulations come into force on carbon monoxide (CO) detectors and smoke alarms. It will be expected for CO detectors to be placed in every room where there is a solid fuel appliance, and for smoke alarms to be mains interlinked. I have found a useful guide on this through Goodlord and linked it here. 

1 December 2022: 

This date is significant in Wales. I have recently spoken about this in a previous blog which can be found here. The Renting Homes Act came into effect, drastically changing the way we rent in Wales through major differences in the tenancies and notices.  

1 April 2023:

Rules in holidays lettings changed as the minimum number of days the property was available to rent went up to 140 days per year, and anyone that did not do this would not be able to benefit from business rate relief and end up having to pay council tax instead as well as the second home premium. This was also spoken about in my previous blog post, ‘Holiday Letting in the Property Industry’. 

6 April 2023: 

On this day, changes in capital gains meant that the exempt amount decreased from £12,300 to £6,000. A massive difference which will negatively affect many vendors’ profits when selling.  

1 June 2023: 

Now we are in the present day and looking at what lies ahead... the first key date of 1st June 2023 being the deadline to deliver all written statements to any tenancies set up prior to the Renting Homes Act in December 2022. In December, they automatically converted from ASTs to occupation contracts, but there was 6 months given to get the written statements out in writing. 

30 June 2023:

This will be the last day that all households will receive the help of the Energy Price Guarantee – a sad day for all, but it has been a massive help for many. 

6 April 2026: 

Tax will made digital for all income tax self-assessments, also needing to be submitted 4 times annually. However, this only applies to those that have an income of over £50,000 on their business or property. Anyone that has an income between £30,000 and £50,000 will have until April 2027. 

There are also some key dates that are still to be confirmed.

• Increasing the minimum rating on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for private rented properties to a minimum of C, compared to the current requirement of E or above. This is expected to happen in April 2025 – but who knows! Many of the legislations that were spoken about in this blog post were meant to be in force a lot earlier than they actually were...  
• HMRC are also looking at making tax digital for corporation tax also. There was a consultation regarding this over 2 years ago now, in March 2021.  

That sums up our current timeline of events in the lettings industry... however anything can happen between now and then. But one main reason we have this blog is to update everyone on any news, announcements and open discussions on anything property! To keep up to date on all property news, subscribe to us TODAY.