19th
Dec 2022
Local authorities and police forces according to a landlord association are significantly failing to take any form of effective action to ‘wipe out’ the serious problem of anti-social tenants.
This accusation followed the landlords’ association’s research which highlighted that half of the private landlords who have at one time issued a repossession order did so because of their tenants’ anti-social behaviour or criminal activities, such as cannabis farms and/or being illicit drug dealers.
The research probably most importantly found that 84 per cent of those landlords who had to evict tenants because of behavioural issues or criminal activity, failed to receive any form of support or assistance from their local authority and 75 per cent said they were not helped at all by the police.
The association’s survey of 3,200 landlords also shows that 67% of respondents had either sometimes or always found it hard to gather evidence or help from fellow tenants or neighbours to tackle the anti-social issues caused by the ‘thugs’.
The association was told that many ‘sharing’ tenants in a property were in fear of retaliatory action from the ‘thugs’ if they told the landlords about their drink, drugs, aggressive, anti-social or criminal behaviour.
One landlord told the association: “My tenants have been assaulted by my other tenants, and we can’t ask them to leave without evidence. Evidence takes time, and in our experience, all the other tenants moved out, and we lost money waiting for the bad one to leave.”
Another similar poll with landlords who had to contend with anti-social behaviour from their tenants in the last twelve months, found that only 26 per cent contacted local authorities or police about the issues, and of those who did just 41 per cent were pleased with the actions taken.
A spokesperson for the association, said the majority of tenants and landlords get on well together but the small minority of tenant ‘thugs’ cause distress to their fellow renters and neighbours, he said: “The police and councils are failing to provide the support landlords desperately need to take swift and effective action against nightmare tenants.
“This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency before Section 21 repossessions are ended.”
The association says that when Section 21 powers are scrapped it is going to be much harder to take effective action against anti- social tenants. The government’s plan will be that anti- social and criminal tenants through causing misery to fellow renters and communities, can only be evicted by landlords if the police or local authorities are involved and have taken action against them.
The landlords want the government to introduce new measures to make sure that quick and tough action can be carried out to tackle the anti-social renters in the PRS, which include:
- Carrying out all of the recommendations made in the Victims Commissioner’s report on anti-social behaviour.
- Courts must be instructed to prioritise anti-social behaviour hearings with repossession orders enforced immediately.
- Upon local authorities or police having taken action against a tenant’s anti-social behaviour it should be made legal that they inform the respective landlord.
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