The Landlords Registration Act, which sets minimum standards on tenancies and property maintenance, won’t come into force yet.

That’s according to Tynwald’s housing and community board chair.

Having received royal assent in December and being passed through Tynwald during the summer, chair of the board Chris Thomas MHK has said he doesn’t expect it to come into force for at least another six months.

legislation

Previously, the chair of the Isle of Man Landlords’ Association, Alan Burrows, claimed landlords were ‘exiting the market’ after hearing that the legislation was being brought in by government.

Mr Thomas said: ‘There is a transition provision right at the end of the legislation, that says the act won’t come into force until regulations have been made.

‘The Department of Infrastructure always promised that it would consult on the actual regulations before it brought it forward but it hasn’t consulted us yet.

‘I can’t see how the whole process from drawing up something to consulting on it and taking it to Tynwald can happen in the next six months. That’s quite substantial.’

Mr Thomas said that the board will bring an action plan to Tynwald in May.

‘We will come up with a four-year legislative programme and a very important part of that will be all the regulations that need to be made to bring the act into force,’ Mr Thomas said.

‘The action that’s described in the plan is to focus on what’s called an occupancy deposit scheme and arbitration scheme.

‘It’s the same as what exists in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Jersey and essentially rather than a deposit being held individually, each of the tenancy contracts is held in a central place.

If there’s an argument about how much is owed back you then have an arbitration about it. I expect that will be a priority of the housing and communities board.

‘We’ll start work on putting together an occupancy deposit arbitration scheme and if you do that you have to standardise things so that will lead to focus on what the regulation standards should be and what the contracts and tenancy agreements would look like. At the moment they’re all a bit here and there.

‘It’s all going to take longer than six months and also the ministers involved probably exaggerated the timescale when they were taking it through. The registration was rushed through but to be fair to the [politicians involved] they did always say they would consult on the regulations.’

In response to the claim landlords were leaving the market, he said: ‘The landlords are exaggerating about the impact of this law on their behaviour. The reason they’re selling is because the prices are high I think.’