HOUSING ACT ...

UNFRIENDLY TO ROSS AND RACHEL

Television's Ross, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler and Joey wouldn't be "Friends" for long if they left their New York apartment to share a house in the UK.

For next year they could be falling out over massive rent increases of up to £55 a month each - and it's all down to the government's new Housing Act.

Because the cost of complying with the new raft of complex legislation is going to leave private sector landlords with massive bills to settle.

"And that sort of outlay can't be absorbed. It has to be passed on in some form," says Chris Town, Chairman of the leading Residential Landlords Association whose members own over 100,000 rented properties throughout the country.

When the new Housing Act comes into force, later this year, one of the most troublesome aspects will be the kind of 'house in multiple occupation' that the 'Friends' characters share. Fire regulations will demand new specification internal fire doors … and the typical HMO has around half a dozen.

A Leeds quotation has priced a single door at £350. And with some 540,000 HMOs in the country - occupied mainly by students, post graduates, student nurses and trainee teachers - that adds up to 3,240,000 doors fitted at a cost of £1,134,000,000.

"Unbelievably staggering," says Chris Town. "We don't know what it all means yet but it's the 'Friends' generation that's likely to be very directly affected.

"New fire doors are not the end of the story. More than three millions old ones will need to be incinerated - with all the carbon emissions that entails. There are also fire alarms to hardwire. And emergency lighting to provide. Plus new demands to create additional bathrooms, toilets and kitchen facilities. And, on top of all that, landlords will have to pay untenably high fees to formally licence an HMO.

"That's why we reckon rents will have to rise by about £55 per tenant, per month, just to stand still," says Chris Town. "And many landlords will be earning less from an HMO in which bedrooms have been converted to provide washing amenities.

"It's all a big mess - a badly drafted and rushed piece of legislation for which we'll all pay a high price in the years to come."

The Residential Landlords Association (tel: 0845 666 5000) is a leading national organisation for professional landlords, residential property investors and self-managers - with members owning over 100,000 properties in the UK private rented sector. The range of members' services - on www.rla.org.uk - includes legal advice, insurance, financial services, credit referencing and training. For tenants there is www.tenantdocs.co.uk - where tips include a free download of the RLA's award-winning Plain English tenancy agreement. The RLA operates a web-based property search on www.homes2rent.net and publishes the bi-monthly Residential Property Investor magazine.

For further press information and interviews please contact

Brian Johnson at Powell Communications - tel: 0161 834 9836, fax: 0161 839 2660; brian.johnson@powell-pr.co.uk