17th
Dec 2018
According to a trade body around two thirds of councils in England and Wales have not prosecuted one single private rented sector landlord in twelve months during 2017/2018.
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20% of councils failed to issue any landlord improvement notices to carry out repairs to their properties.
This is in spite of the new powers given to councils, over eighteen months ago in April 2017, to issue landlords with civil penalties (which included higher fines) who had housed their tenants in properties that were deemed unacceptable.
From April 2017 to March 31st 2018, 89% of local councils had failed to use the new powers; pathetically 50% said they had not updated their policies to take advantage of them.
The trade body contacted 290 local authorities requesting Freedom of Information about their enforcement of the new powers, and from the results it showed that there was no correlation between council's licensing schemes and increased levels (if any) of enforcement.
The trade body is calling for greater enforcement action to be taken against 'rogue' landlords whilst MPs are actively discussing the proposed new rules for the private rented sector. It argues that the councils' (lack of) enforcement actions are continually failing both good landlords and tenants.
The trade body wants pressure put on the councils to actually use the new powers to rid the sector of criminal landlords. It has suggested that there should be extra and continual funding for enforcement departments, councils should study council tax returns to find 'hidden' landlords and they must 'up their game' to oust 'rogues' and prosecute them.
A spokesperson, for the trade body, said: “These results show that for all the publicity around bad landlords, a large part of the fault lies with councils who are failing to use the wide range of powers they already have.
“Too many local authorities fall back on licensing schemes which, as this report proves, actually achieve very little except to add to the costs of the responsible landlords who register.
“Instead of policing licensing schemes, councils need to focus on finding and taking action against criminal landlords."
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