UK Offence Report

Housing administrator’s duties on vacating office

article 6.9(2) of The Housing Administration (England and Wales) Rules 2018

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

2 A housing administrator who fails to comply with this rule is guilty of an offence and liable to

a fine and, for continued contravention, to

a daily default fine, as set out in Schedule 1.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
failing to do something the instrument requires
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach article 6.9(2)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a person fails to comply with this rule.
  2. Not doing what the provision requires under the Housing Administration (England and Wales) Rules 2018, by the time it requires it to be done.
  3. Doing it, but not in the manner or to the standard the instrument specifies.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Unlimited
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

'to a fine' with no stated maximum.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
12 June 2018
In force from
5 July 2018
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Rules) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Rules set out the detailed procedures for the conduct of housing administration, as provided by Chapter 5 of Part 4 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Housing administration is a special administration regime which applies to private registered providers of social housing. The main features of housing administration are: a the registered provider enters the procedure by court order on application by the Secretary of State or, with the consent of the Secretary of State, by the Regulator of Social Housing; b the order appoints a housing administrator; c the objective of housing administration is firstly normal administration and secondly keeping social housing within the regulated sector. Part 2 of these Rules sets out the procedure for applying for a housing administration order, provisions about the hearing of the application and the grant of the order. Part 3 of these Rules sets out the process of housing administration. Part 4 of these Rules contains general provisions detailing court practice and procedure for the housing administration. Part 5 of these Rules contains provisions relating to distribution to creditors, including proving debts and quantifying claims. Part 6 of these Rules contains provisions about the housing administrator, including how and when the housing administrator may be replaced, and the housing administrator’s remuneration. Part 7 of these Rules contains provisions about time and general rules about documents. Schedule 1 to these Rules contains specific details of the punishment of offences under these Rules. Schedule 2 to these Rules contains specific requirements for the service of documents within housing administration proceedings. An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. An impact assessment for the Housing and Planning Act 2016 is available on the website of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this became law

This instrument became law without a debate or a vote. Under the negative procedure it took effect unless a motion to stop it succeeded, and none was tabled.

Neither House could have amended it. A statutory instrument is put to each House as a whole thing, to be approved or not; the Houses can reject an instrument or record their regret, but they cannot change a word of it. That is the constitutional position for every offence on this site.

The full procedural history →

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source