The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has strongly rebutted "claims from Shelter that landlords are not passing on the £400 energy bills rebate to tenants" saying "it is irresponsible scaremongering on the part of some to be making baseless suggestions that landlords will not do the right thing by their tenants."

On 4th August we reported on concerns raised by Shelter (as well as by the Citizens Advice Bureau) that a loophole in the law meant that private rented sector landlords were not obliged to pass on any of the Govt's £400 energy bill rebate for vulnerable households to their tenants where energy bills are included in the tenant's rent and the rebate is thus not paid directly to the tenant but to the landlord.

The NRLA has now rebutted Shelter's concerns saying "Our message to the Government is clear: they must ensure landlords who foot the cost of [the] tenant's bill receive the discount provided by this sum of money."

It goes without saying that, at its simplest, Shelter represents tenant interests and the NRLA represents landlord interests but at the end of the day, both organisations are the opposite sides of the same private rented sector coin. Both organisations also appear to accept that the sector is in need of reform i.e. the coin is now out of whack, so to speak. On this specific issue both are correct: Shelter is right in pointing out that, in relation to the rebate, there is a gap in the law which means some, but by no means all, landlords could seek to take an unfair advantage if the opportunity presented itself; and, the NRLA is right in that Govt should ensure that landlords don't foot the cost of a tenant's energy usage (putting poor energy efficiency of properties to one side for a moment). Both could work together on this issue. As we suggested in our 4th August piece, given that most of this cohort of tenants will be HMO tenants and local authorities know the details of all licensed HMOs in their areas, perhaps a simple email campaign to licensed landlords and leaflet campaign to HMO tenants covering the rebate would go a long way to help ensure that the rebate is used for what it was meant for and any excess would go to the tenant. We did also say that the matter may well be academic as the energy cap had become so high that the £400 amount of the rebate (calculated before the current energy cost forecasts) was all but blown out of the water by the actual energy costs.