Rent Repayment Orders and the case of Rakusen v. Jepson

Rakusen v. Jepson is the case where the Upper Tribunal held that tenants could apply for a Rent Repayment Order against the superior landlord, where their own landlord was a ‘rent to rent’ landlord. 

This decision was challenged by the landlord in the Court of Appeal, and the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal.

We have already had a certain amount of content on this blog on the Rakusen v. Jepson case.  Robin Stewart did a pre Court of Appeal decision post here and we have mentioned it in our Newsrounds.

The Court of Appeal decision came out in July (2021) and Justin Bates, who represented Safer Renting who were interveners, agreed to do a Legal Cases webinar for us, but due to holiday and other commitments, we were only able to do it today.

I am delighted to announce that Justin delivered an excellent webinar which is below for you to watch.

Justin explains the background and relevant Rent Repayment Order law and a recent case on the same point (Goldsborough v. Gardener [2019]) before going through the Rakusen case carefully and explaining the law and reasoning for the Court of Appeal’s decision.

After watching, please can you subscribe to our YouTube Channel if you have not done so already.

Here are the links mentioned in the webinar:

• Justin’s presentation
• The Landlord & Lawyer podcast episode
• The Safer Renting report on the shadow private rented sector

You can watch the rest of the Landlord Law Legal Case Report webinars here.

Note that the case may go to the Supreme Court so watch this space!