Landlords in Greater Manchester are being asked to help mould the city region’s new Good Landlord Charter, designed to improve renting.

The authority and its mayor Andy Burnham (main image) wants landlords and letting agents to work with it to develop the voluntary scheme; both private and social landlords who want to commit to higher than the current legal standards will be encouraged to join.

Members will need to show they meet 21 criteria, including that their properties meet at least an EPC band C, they allow tenants to make reasonable changes to their home, publish timely target response times to problems and ensure work/repairs are done by a qualified or competent tradesperson.

It adds that the criteria to bring homes up to EPC C should be done over a common sense timescale and would have “reasonable exceptions”.

Disagreement

During a consultation earlier this year, the criteria of offering a “clear and fair rent review or setting process” sparked significant disagreement about how this should be assessed, according to the authority’s report, however, it explains, “the existing criterion gives sufficient room for these views to be taken forward for consideration without amendment”.

The authority says it recognises that it won’t be easy to determine how the member criteria will be demonstrated and assessed. It adds: “A single failing in a portfolio of a thousand homes may not indicate the same poor practice as the same failing in a portfolio of two homes. An independent implementation unit will be best placed to bring in the external skills to work through this complexity with those landlords who are keen to become the charter’s first supporters.”

It acknowledges that recruiting private landlords will be a key challenge and has decided against charging a fee to join due to landlords’ growing financial and regulatory obligations.

Read more about the charter.