New advice has been issued to local authorities on how to tackle bad letting agents and landlords.

The paper, Improving the Private Rented Sector and Tackling Bad Practice, was published on Friday.

The paper says there is a “small minority of bad letting agents”.

It goes on: “An unscrupulous letting agent can make the tenant experience worse by being unclear about their fees, not protecting the client money they hold and not advertising how clients can complain about poor service.

“They can also frustrate landlords and tenants by generating an unnecessary churn of contracts to extract new tenant fees.”

The paper also details some bad practices by letting agents, highlighting:

• lack of transparency in fees
• charging ‘exorbitant’ fees for renewing an existing tenancy agreement
• charging fees that are excessive in relation to the actual work involved
• keeping tenants’ deposits unlawfully
• knowingly letting an unsafe property
• helping landlords move groups of people around properties to avoid enforcement action
• helping to find accommodation for illegal migrant workers
• failing to notify a landlord of the full details of a let – for example, leading the landlord to believe the tenants are a family of three when in fact the property is overcrowded.

The paper rounds up existing laws to deal with bad landlords and agents, and also suggests leaflet drops to tenants outlining their rights.

It also suggests that councils should have well-publicised contact email addresses and phone numbers where people can report bad landlords and agents.

The advice is here