23^rd Dec 2018

MPs from all parties have rallied together when demanding the government gets tough with 'rogue' landlords who continually flout the law, by confiscating their properties. This action taken by MPs follows more shocking stories and investigations that highlights the appalling exploitation of tenants, by some of the worst landlords in the private rented sector.

In April the select committee published a report on private rented sector condemning the 'rogues' in the sector. The recent joint Guardian and ITV news investigation which uncovered that even though landlords were convicted for being unfit to rent out private residences, they were still carrying on business as normal because they were exploiting a legal loophole that allowed them to get away with it.

On Thursday 27th November whilst debating the select committees' recommendations, MPs were forthright in telling the Housing Minister, Helen Wheeler, to introduce new powers to confiscate serial offending rogue landlords' properties.

Wheeler was asked by the Labour MP Clive Betts who chairs the committee: “Just reflect – even if you can’t commit to a change of policy today – to have a think about [confiscation]. These people are bad people renting bad houses to vulnerable tenants.

“They’re making lots of money out of it, they’re making proceeds out of their crime. Let’s take off them the asset that enables them to do that.”

The housing minister failed to answer the question during the debate prompting Betts to tell the Guardian: “I don’t know why the government is resisting it. Confiscation and publicising those criminal landlords – that will be the focus now of trying to get serious change.”

The joint investigation also found that since the launch of the government's rogue landlords' database, it had remained empty for six months. The government's policy at the time was not to allow access to the information by the general public, even after some council's finally submitted entries into the database.

The Prime Minister recently announced a U turn by promising that the database will now be made public to tenants.

Bob Blackman, a Conservative member of the committee member entered into the debate, and said: “The sad reality is that if landlords fail the fit and proper person test to be landlords and they’re banned then all their tenants should know about it. That just makes sense. So to have a position where a landlord can be banned in one borough and carry on renting in others just does not make sense at all.

“I agree that in the most serious cases just a fine becomes part of doing the business. Having the ability to confiscate the property and to protect the tenants from the behaviours of rogue or criminal landlords has to be the final issue.”

Although Wheeler failed to make a statement in the debate about confiscating properties she did say that councils have sufficient powers: “Councils already have a range of powers to tackle rogue landlords, including the ability to take over the management of privately rented properties.”


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