BRUCE AND HOLLY

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A Landlord who fails to do this could be fined up to £7,000

March 28, 2026 bruceandholly

Once the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 takes effect on the 1st May 2026, private residential landlords in England will have only 1 month to get tenancies correctly documented or face fines of up to £7,000. This means serving existing tenants with a tenant information sheet explaining their new rights under the 2025 Act. These new rights can include lifetime security of tenure, protection against unfair rent increases, the ability to vacate on as little as 2 months prior written notice, and the outlawing of discrimination against tenants who are on welfare or who have children living with them. For landlords who get it wrong, there may be no second chances. Just a financial penalty.

For new tenancies, or those which were previously undocumented, landlords must issue tenants (as well as prospective tenants) with a written statement of terms containing all the information required by the Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Satement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026. The content of that written statement of terms must conform exactly to the requirements of the schedule to the 2026 Regulations. That statement can either be standalone or incorporated in a formal tenancy agreement. The Information Sheet to be served on existing tenants must be downloaded as a PDF and must be issued to tenants either as hard copy or by email but exactly in the prescribed format. To help landlords with this, the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government has issued guidance published 20th March 2026 titled, ‘The Renters’s Rights Act Information Sheet 2026: The information sheet about the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 that landlords and their agents must give to tenants’.

Whilst there is no prescribed template for the statement of terms, it is important that particular care is taken to include within these statements of terms any legitimate non-fault grounds of possession to which the tenancy may be subject. Landlords who fail to do this may later have difficulty in recovering possession even when they might otherwise have had legitimate grounds to do so.

The MHCLG Guidance includes the following advice:

the information sheet does not have to be given to lodgers but must be given to every tenant named on the tenancy agreement
the tenant information sheet is only valid when downloaded from the Government website;
the information sheet must be given to tenants either by printing a hard copy and posting or hand delivering to tenants or alternatively sending a PDF electronically as an attachment to an email or text message where it is appropriate to do so. However it is not sufficient just to email or text a link to a tenant;
the legislation does not require landlords to change or reissue an existing written tenancy agreement;
where a tenancy was informally entered into before 1st May 2026 without a written agreement, the landlord must provide a statements of tenancy terms (see above);
Social landlords do not need to provide this information sheet.

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The Crazy World of Dreams

February 28, 2026 bruceandholly

Deams fascinate me. Those mad moments of rapid eye movement which take us into another universe. Which teach us so much about ourselves.

Last night I dreamed we were going to Los Angeles for a 2-week vacation. Before doing so, I packed our cat in a brown cardboard box, intending to take it with us. But when we arrived at our destination, neither the box nor the cat were anywhere to be seen. So how is it going to eat?

But perhaps the most famous dream is forgetting to get dressed before going to work. Then, like Adam and Eve, discovering yourself sitting at your desk stark naked. Why is it that none of your work colleagues have even noticed?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B075822WGB Read more

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They wanted me to buy a heat pump. I said. No! No! No!

February 10, 2026 bruceandholly

I’d already decided that I would never buy a heat pump even before I saw a recent TV documentary on customer experiences. I mean! Why would I want to exchange my trusty old Potterton for something the size of a ship’s engine.?And don’t kid me about savings on my energy bills. Yeah I might save a couple of hundred quid. Against a £40,000 total installation cost, Including improvements to home insulation. Big deal! Such a return on investment. A few days ago while I was having my boiler serviced I asked the heating engineer about heat pumps. He shook his head. This is what he said.

” I live in a rented house that’s got a heat pump. It takes four hours just to heat up enough water to have a bath. So as there’s several of us in the house, I have to use the immersion heater. And what really worries me is that most of the equipment has to be stored outside the building, where it’s so easy to steal. Think about all that copper piping”

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Renters’ Rights Act 2025 – The Hidden Sting

January 18, 2026 bruceandholly

After 1st May 2026, any private landlord proposing to let residential property must quote the asking rent and cannot accept anything above the quoted figure. But don’t be tempted to overprice the accommodation, because there is a catch. In an echo of the old Rent Acts, section 7 of the Renters’ Rights Act gives an incoming tenant up to 6 months to apply to a first tier tribunal for the rent to be reduced from that originally negotiated. So don’t be caught out. Overpricing will deter good prospective tenants whilst at the same time exposing you to the mercy of the wiseguys.

So save yourself the hassle. And remember that you heard it here first.

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The Real Pirates Behind the Films

January 9, 2026 bruceandholly

Even as a child, I would not have read Harry Potter. It’s just that I was not into wizards and magic spells. But give me Pirates! And that’s something else! It’s also why I watched all of the Pirates of the Caribbean films over the Christmas and New Year period. But did you know that each of those films had their roots in fact? I’ll prove it to you.

As a child I would lay in bed reading Edward Dingle’s ‘Sinbad’s Book of Pirates’, which was written in 1936 and had been given to me as a hand me down.

I’ve never been a pirate and wouldn’t be qualified to write a pirate book. Dingle was qualified because before becoming an author he had spent 22 years at sea and had survived five shipwrecks. In 1893, Dingle joined the salvage schooner Black Pearl to look for sunken treasure. They found the sunken wreck and strong box but we’re unable to move it. Strong gales then blew the ship away. A return voyage was wrecked near St Paul’s Island Australia. The crew survived but the Black Pearl was lost. They survived by eating rabbit, goat and fish before they were rescued. Eventually they did find treasure in another shipwreck. Does his story sound familiar?

Was it a coincidence that the name Black Pearl was used in Walt Disney’s first 2003 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl’?

For me, the best pirate film was the 2011 ‘On Stranger Tides’ which again featured real historical characters and ships. The lead character in that film was Edward Teach, the famous Blackbeard and his ship, Queen Ann’s Revenge. Teach lived from 1680 to 1718 and operated around the West Indies and Britain’s then North American colonies.The Blackbeard name derived from his awesome appearance.So what about the mermaids?

Did mermaids actually exist? All we know, is that throughout most of human history, sailors believed in them. Mermaids were unlucky Omen. So what is it that I’m trying to say? That everything you write has to have an element of authenticity, Even if it’s fantasy fiction. It’s all about the research. About getting it right.

Postscript: in a moment of madness I went on to the Amazon site and ordered a used copy of Dingle’s 1936 book. It was as I’d remembered it. Almost word for word. And guess what? It is the World’s only surviving copy