15^th Jul 2018

The government has turned down demands by MPs to let local authorities take full possession of rogue landlords' properties. It has however said that it will consider providing extra funds to councils to make sure that the tenant fee ban is imposed when it comes into force next April.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee received an official response to their recommendations on potential changes to the private rented sector. The government said that councils had already been awarded powers to let them manage rented properties if landlords are given management orders.

The Government response said: “Management orders provide local authorities with almost all the rights of a landlord including: collecting rent, setting rent levels, a right to possession of the property (subject to the rights of existing occupiers), and a right to grant new tenancies subject to the landlord’s agreement.

“They are permitted to use the income from the property to cover their management costs and can retain any surplus, provided it is used for private sector housing enforcement purposes. Whilst this stops short of the local authority being able to sell a property, management orders allow local authorities to take the place of the landlord in the management of the property.

“For cases where debts are owed by a rogue landlord, the local authority may also place a charge on a landlord’s property which enables the recovery of costs when the property is sold.”

It will provide further support for local authorities' PRS enforcement strategies and one such measure will be letting councils to keep hold of any fines.

The response said: “The Tenant Fees Bill provides additional funding to local authorities in the first year of the policy to support implementation and education to enforce the legislation.”

One of the many recommendations made by the MPs was to extend the time limit on issuing Section 21 notices to more than six months; this was dismissed by the government: “We believe the current legislation strikes the right balance between the interests of landlords and tenants and we have no plans to change the legislation in this way.”

The government will back a national benchmarking scheme that will list how many PRS complaints councils receive and their outcome, whether by enforcement or other measures. This information will be available in the public domain so that renters will be able to compare which authorities best protect tenants' rights.

The government has plans to make it mandatory for any landlord who does not have a lettings agent that they must join a redress scheme. This will allow their tenants to approach the chosen scheme to address any issues rather than having to go to court.

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