A voluntary accreditation scheme is an arrangement under which suppliers of rented housing agree to meet a set of benchmark standards relating to:
- the physical condition of the accommodation
- housing management
- the relationship between landlord and tenants
Accreditation is a way of codifying standards to promote best practice. It is also about landlords making themselves accountable to scheme operators and, ultimately, to consumers.
Schemes are administered by an independent body to check that the required standards are met. Independent bodies currently running schemes include:
- local authorities
- higher education institutions (HEIs)
- voluntary sector organisations acting as the agents of HEIs
- landlord associations
- joint partnership schemes
- ANUK
Generally, there are incentives to membership, such as public recognition of having met the scheme standards, access to information and advice, advertising of accredited properties, or (less frequently) access to publicly financed grant aid with the cost of building work.
Accreditation started as a means of acknowledging and encouraging good private landlords in the mid-1990s. Some higher education institutions and their agencies were responsible for much of the early pioneering activity, along with some local authorities. For universities and colleges, accreditation schemes were identified early on as a valuable process for helping secure good accommodation for their students.
Often taking their cue from the higher education sector, local authorities built on an evolving dialogue with landlords (e.g. through a landlord forum and a designated liaison officer) and established voluntary accreditation schemes for the private rented sector to help raise the standards of management and property conditions for the benefit of tenants. By the late 1990s, increasing numbers of local authorities were operating accreditation schemes across their entire administrative areas.
For landlords, being a member provided better access to information on their obligations and rights in relation to tenants and help in dealing with any problems that arose with tenants and properties, as well as recognition of the quality of their service and access to publicity.
For local authorities, accreditation schemes grew against a background of increasing reliance on the private sector in the supply of rented housing (as demand for social rented housing outstripped supply). In recognition of this, central government commissioned the University of Birmingham in 1999 to undertake research into the operation and benefits of accreditation. The positive findings encouraged the government to support and encourage accreditation and in 2001 it issued comprehensive guidance to local authorities on how to successfully develop and operate accreditation schemes.
This stimulated further interest and resulted in the first National Accreditation Scheme Fair, hosted in Leeds in 2002. Feedback from this event indicated that a wide range of groups and individuals in the private rented sector wished to form a networking organisation to promote accreditation, so the Accreditation Network UK (ANUK) was established. A survey conducted by LACORS in 2008 found that 40 per cent of local authorities operated accreditation schemes. Support for accreditation is broad and includes landlord associations, Shelter, the National Union of Students and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, as well as central and local government.
The power of accreditation schemes, as a form of self-regulation to achieve better housing standards and to hold landlords to account, is a success story. However, since 2008 the progress of the movement has faltered in the face of recessionary forces. So it is again necessary to make the case for accreditation schemes and investment in them, notwithstanding heavy cuts in local government funding.
Your landlord must put your deposit in a government-backed tenancy deposit scheme (TDP) if you rent your home on an assured shorthold tenancy that started after 6 April 2007. In England and Wales your deposit can be registered with:
- Deposit Protection Service (Custodial and Insured)
- MyDeposits - including deposits that were held by Capita
- Tenancy Deposit Scheme
You can find more information on deposits by clicking here and here.
The Accreditation Network UK is a central resource for tenants, landlords and scheme operators interested in accreditation of private rented housing. ANUK seeks to centralise information about landlord accreditation in one place, including a list of known schemes.
ANUK was formed in May 2002 to publicise, promote and share good practice in accreditation. This was in response to increasing interest in accreditation, including in government and amongst higher education institutions, student representative bodies, local authorities, tenants and private rented sector landlords across the UK.
Unipol operates ANUK through an Advisory Group comprising representatives from local authorities, the NRLA and the voluntary sector. The work of representatives is voluntary.
Since its inception ANUK has:
- hosted a comprehensive website as a resource for scheme developers and operators
- developed a core model scheme and core values widely accepted in the sector
- produced, with the Local Government Association, a Landlord Handbook, which has become the standard reference work for professional landlords
- produced the Accreditation Handbook
- hosted several conferences for scheme operators
- runs two government-approved National Codes in partnership with Unipol Student Homes
ANUK is administered by Unipol Student Homes, a national student housing charity. More information about Unipol Student Homes can be found at www.unipol.org.uk.
Accreditation started as a means of acknowledging and encouraging good private landlords in the mid-1990s. For landlords, being a member provides better access to information on their obligations and rights in relation to tenants and help in dealing with any problems that arise with tenants and properties, as well as recognition of the quality of their service and access to publicity.
Generally, there are incentives to membership, such as public recognition of having met the scheme standards, access to information and advice, advertising of accredited properties, or (less frequently) access to publicly financed grant aid with the cost of building work.
You can search for an accreditation scheme to join by clicking here.
Deposits on assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) must be protected with a government approved scheme. Under the Housing Act 2004 the landlord or agent must protect the deposit and issue prescribed information to the tenant within 30 days of receiving it.
If there is disagreement over how the deposit is divided at the end of the tenancy, a dispute can be raised with the scheme and an impartial adjudicator will decide how the deposit should be divided based on the evidence provided.
You can find more information on deposit protection here.
The Accreditation Handbook provides guidance and best practice examples on how to set up and maintain an accreditation scheme.
For a local authority, there may be a simple alternative to developing its own scheme. If there is a bona fide independent operator already running an accreditation scheme within the local administrative boundaries, it is a good idea to evaluate its operations and effectiveness with a view to awarding formal endorsement as ‘local authority-approved’. Criteria for determining whether a scheme warrants endorsement should include:
- a satisfactory code of standards/practice/conduct
- sufficient resources to operate a scheme effectively
- a satisfactory mechanism to undertake compliance checking, complaint investigation and disciplinary action