Posts with tag: rogue landlords

Councils across England have cut the amount that they are spending on dealing with criminal landlords by a quarter compared with 2009/10, the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has found.

According to analysis by the organisation, while spending by local authorities in England on housing standard activities was £44.5m in 2009/10, by 2017/18, that had fallen to £33.5m – a drop of £11m.

With over 150 Acts of Parliament containing more than 400 regulations governing the private rental sector, the RLA argues that better enforcement of these laws, backed up by greater funding, is key to driving out the minority of landlords who can make life a misery for tenants and bring the industry into disrepute.

While the Government has recently made £2m available for councils to support efforts to tackle problem landlords, the RLA does not believe that one-off pots of money provide the certainty for councils to be able to plan long-term enforcement action.

New civil penalty powers enable councils to keep the proceeds of fines levied on criminal landlords and use this money for further enforcement. The problem is that councils don’t have the resources to kickstart the process by taking action against rogue landlords that then leads to fines generating funding for further action, the RLA says.

It is calling on the Government to provide in the forthcoming Spending Review a multi-year funding package to support initial enforcement action.

John Stewart, the Policy Manager at the RLA, insists: “Criminal landlords undermine the reputation of the decent majority, cause tenants to suffer and have no place in the sector.

“Local authorities must have the funds they need to properly enforce the wide range of powers they already have to tackle substandard housing and criminal behaviour. Our analysis shows that, for all the warm words, councils are in desperate need of new funding to ensure this happens. The Government should use the Spending Review to address this as a matter of urgency.”

Almost £2.4m of extra funding will be made available to more than 50 councils across the country to help them tackle rogue landlords, the Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Heather Wheeler MP, has announced.

The Government acknowledges that the vast majority of landlords provide good homes for their tenants, but it hopes that the extra funding will enable local authorities to step up action against the small minority who continue to flout the law and force vulnerable renters, such as young families, to live in unsuitable or unsafe housing.

Various councils will benefit from the extra funding, including Walsall, which will look to improve cross-agency enforcement work, including the innovative use of drones and thermal mapping to identify potential problem properties.

Lancaster plans to create a training programme for existing enforcement staff across the Lancashire region.

Meanwhile, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) have been allocated over £330,000 between them to conduct coordinated work to tackle rogue landlords who operate across multiple local authorities in their regions.

Wheeler insists: “Everyone has the right to live in a home that is safe and secure, and it is vital we crack down on the small minority of landlords who are not giving their tenants this security.

“This extra funding will further boost councils’ ability to root out rogue landlords and ensure that poor-quality homes in the area are improved, making the housing market fairer for everyone.”

The Government has already given local authorities stronger powers to tackle criminal landlords, ranging from hefty fines to banning orders for the worst offenders.

The extra funding will be used to support a range of projects that councils believe will help them to ramp up action against criminal landlords.

Councils may also decide to support tenants to take action against poor living standards through rent repayment orders, or develop digital solutions, helping officers to report back and make decisions quicker.

Councils that receive funding will be encouraged to share best practice and examples of innovative approaches, to help improve enforcement in other areas.

Councillor Judith Blake, the Housing Spokesperson for the Local Government Association, says: “The vast majority of landlords are responsible and provide decent housing for their tenants, however, the reputations of that majority are being tarnished by the small minority of landlords who exploit loopholes with no regard to their responsibilities.

“Councils want to support a good quality local private rented offer in their communities, but can be held back by significant funding pressures and uncertainty. It is therefore good that the Government has announced a funding boost for councils, to help ensure the small minority of rogue landlords improve standards.”

She adds: “We ask that the Government now follows this announcement by granting more freedom for councils to establish local licensing schemes.”

Controversial buy-to-let landlord Judith Wilson was sentenced in court on Tuesday (11^th December) for failing to comply with an enforcement notice issued by Ashford Borough Council, which ordered her to supply hot water to a disabled tenant.

Wilson has been fined £10,000 by Folkestone Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay legal costs of £14,890.94.

After finding Judith Wilson guilty at a hearing in November, District Judge Justin Barron had ordered her to return to court for sentencing, and made a financial circumstances order under Section 162 of the Criminal Justice Act, which required her to disclose, in court documents, evidence of all bank accounts, both individual and joint, plus all assets.

In addition to the £10,000 fine, Judge Barron ordered Wilson to pay Ashford Borough Council’s legal costs in full. She has eight weeks to pay.

Welcoming the sentencing, a Spokesperson for Ashford Borough Council said that the case is a powerful reminder to private landlords that there will be serious consequences if they fail to deal fairly with their tenants.

They commented: “This successful prosecution shows that we have teeth and we are not afraid to fight for the rights of tenants. What a lot of private sector tenants don’t realise is that, if they have trouble with their landlord, they can come to us for help.

“Ashford Borough Council champions the rights of tenants, and we make sure that landlords remain accountable and live up to their responsibilities under the law. If they don’t, then there are consequences.”

They added: “In this case, we did everything we could to resolve the situation. We gave Mrs Wilson every opportunity to find a solution to the problem, but we were ignored. In the end, we realised that the only way to get justice for the tenants involved was to prosecute.”

As ever, we urge all landlords to stick to their legal responsibilities, and protect the health and safety of their tenants.