The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health has said that a “fundamental review of the entire legislative framework” is required to properly tackle rogue letting agents and landlords.
Responding to the government’s technical discussion paper on tackling rogue agents and landlords in the private rented sector, the CIEH also said harsher penalties were needed to deter rogue landlords, including minimum fines of £5,000, and called for jail terms for landlords who breached bans.
The CIEH said: “It is our view that a fundamental review and consolidation of the entire legislative framework is necessary to bring about comprehensive reform and rejuvenation.”
In response to a question asking ‘do fines reflect the gravity of a (landlord’s) offence’, the CIEH said: “No, the fines are almost always too low and do not consider the severe impact (or potential impact) on the tenants or reflect the significant capital and revenue gains to landlords.
“Courts should be required to consider the impact on the tenants and the total assets/rental streams when setting the fine. A minimum fine of, say, £5,000 would be more appropriate.
“We would support setting a minimum fine for repeat offenders, with £7,500 being our preferred level. Courts should consider the impact on and assets of landlords in setting the fine, whilst we would also support giving the courts the power to ban repeat offenders from managing or letting properties for a defined period.”
When asked if there should be a blacklist of persistent rogue landlords and letting agents, the CIEH said: “We support in principle the establishment of such a blacklist on the basis it should make it easier for local authorities to carry out checks on landlords. Our concern is that landlords may not be afraid of being blacklisted.
“The database should include lettings related data, such as gas, electricity and Land Registry information, and should be accessible to tenants. All landlords should be registered to a UK based address or provide a UK representative for service of formal notices.”
The organisation also said it should be mandatory for an offender to be included on the blacklist, and not left up to the court’s discretion.
It said a “term of imprisonment” was justified for landlords breaching bans, as well as a forced sale of property, rent payment orders and action under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Comments (4)
How about introducing revision to licensing to resolve ROGUE COUNCILS who unnecessarily set borough wide licensing? This is a problem with councils like Croydon and others and has been acknowledged by Government with recent changes where councils need to get central government consent where more than 20% of borough is to be licensed. Why not make this retrospective. CROYDON COUNCIL HAS SUGGESTED ALL OF CROYDON IS DEEMED AN ANTI-SOCIAL AREA BY VIRTUE OF NEEDING BOROUGH WIDE LICENSING (or is it a money thing!). This shows a complete failure of local authority and the police in the borough if it is in fact all anti social. With such Borough wide chaos it suggests it is not a place to go.
The constant use of the term ROGUE LANDLORD in the public mind is now all landlords are rogues so it should be stopped being used and criminal landlord used where that is the term meant. The constant banging on by Councils and Government is damaging the property profession.
It has been seen how power is misused by Councils and I do not agree with the proposals although persistent criminal landlords need to be driven out – it comes down to how you do it.
Will you have a point. Some Councils have abused their powers which if you think about it is double standards. You can’t do what you like, but we can. As for the main story sounds a good idea but as everything in life, not that simple. Many a good landlord is on the receiving end of the tenant from hell which currently offers them very little protection or achievable compensation and the crafty so and so’s will in some cases rig a property where this idea will fall on the responsibility of the landlord. I’m all for getting rid of rogue landlords but it is time the authorities balanced their measures to tackle rogue tenants.
Woodentop, I am sure your mean tackle CRIMINAL LANDLORDS (I think we all need to stop using the term rogue landlords! its a bit like the term mugger when it means violent thief!
Totally agree, it makes me mad when you see rogue landlords ignoring orders, getting fined then doing the same again. Of course we also need to address the problem of rogue tenants – those who abuse the law, never pay rent and wreck perfectly good properties, costing the landlord thousands in lost rent and repairs. We need a similar blacklist of these tenants