London Mayor Aims to Name and Shame Bad Landlords
Bad landlords and letting agents convicted of exploiting tenants in London face public naming and shaming online.
The city’s mayor Sadiq Khan will start the campaign to improve housing standards with an online database allowing tenants to check out their new landlords.
Six councils in the capital will join the scheme in the autumn – Brent, Camden, Kingston, Newham, Southwark and Sutton. The rest of London’s 40 council will follow during 2018.
“I refuse to stand by as thousands of Londoners suffer sky-high rents and horrendous living conditions,” said Khan.
“I have seen first-hand the abysmal conditions that some private renters are forced to endure.
“Most landlords treat renters well, but a minority are exploiting their tenants and it’s simply unacceptable.”
The database will let renters check if a landlord or letting agent has a criminal conviction related to housing offences.
Last year, 410 landlords were reportedly prosecuted in London. Most of the allegations related to licensing and maintaining proper health and safety standards in houses of multiple occupation (HMO).
Seven out of 10 prosecutions in the capital were in Newham, where a borough-wide licensing scheme for all buy-to-lets is operated by the council.
The London mayor’s measure seems to duplicate a database already announced by outgoing Housing Minister Gavin Barwell.
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 to tackle rogue landlords includes a database of landlords and property agents convicted of housing offences.
One factor leading to a national bad landlord database is that with hundreds of councils responsible for granting HMO licences, checking if a landlord is a fit and proper person is almost impossible as no central record of convictions is maintained.
With the latest HMRC figure based on tax returns putting the number of UK landlords at 1.75 million and fewer than 1,000 a year facing courts, that makes the percentage of bad landlords at just 0.05% of the total.
New Rules for Local Authorities to Enforce Housing Regulations against Landlords
On 6 April 2017, we have new regulations coming into force under the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
As these deal, mainly with providing Local Authorities new powers to deal with rogue landlords they should, hopefully (if you are a landlord), not affect you too much – assuming you are a good landlord.
However, it is as well for you to know what they are, as they can be VERY expensive.
Tenants – these new rules are potentially good news for you.
The new Fixed Penalties
These new rules allow Local Authorities to levy a financial penalty of up to £30,000 for various offences under the Housing Act 2004 instead of bringing a prosecution.
The offences are:
- failure to apply for an HMO licence;
- breach of a licence condition;
- breach of the HMO Management Regulations;
- breach of a Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) enforcement notice; and
- using unlawful force to seek an eviction.
Note that if there are several offences (as there may well be, for example, if you have breached several of the HMO management regs) there will be a separate penalty notice for each one – which could rack up to quite a sum, even though is it not expected that the penalty will be for the full amount every time. The government will, I understand, be publishing guidance on this, although I haven’t seen it yet.
If you find yourself on the wrong end of a penalty notice, you will have 28 days to make representations to your Local Authority. If the Local Authority decides to go ahead, you then get another 28 days to appeal to the First Tier Tribunal.
If you find yourself threatened by this, my advice would be to book an early advice call with one of the solicitors from Anthony Gold via our Telephone Advice service (see below). If you deal with things early on it will normally save a lot of heartache (and expense) later. This is NOT the time to quibble about the cost of an advice call.
Rent Repayment Orders
We have had these for quite a few years but they have previously been limited to situations where landlords fail to apply for an HMO license when their property is licensable. Now though they will be available for the same offences as the penalty notices above.
Rent Repayment orders can be REALLY expensive. You don’t want one made against you – imagine having to pay back a whole years’ worth of rent!
However, it is now going to be easier for both Local Authorities and tenants to apply for these. The application will need to be made to the First-Tier Tribunal, and the FTT will need to be satisfied beyond doubt that the offence has been committed. However, so long as they are satisfied, it is not necessary for the landlord to have been prosecuted.
The rules are slightly different depending on whether there has been a prosecution or not. If the landlord has been prosecuted and convicted, then the FTT will in most cases be expected to order the whole sum claimed, normally 12 months’ worth of rent.
Where there is no prosecution the tribunal can order what they think is reasonable.
Don’t think that these orders are going to be few and far between. The legislation places a duty on the Local Authority to seek a Rent Repayment Order whenever they can and to help tenants to do so by providing advice or even conducting the case for them. It COULD happen to you.
If you are a tenant:
If think your landlord comes into any of the categories above – go and get advice from your Local Authority housing advice service. It’s free. Ring the general switchboard for your Local Authority and ask for the department which provides housing advice for private sector tenants. They should put you through to the right people.
Note however that you can only get a rent repayment order if you have paid the rent. If you are on benefit, the money goes back to the Council.
The implications for Local Authority Enforcement work
Local Authorities have been much criticised over the years for failing to do much if any, enforcement work, which has meant that landlords have largely ‘got away’ with poor standards and failure to comply with the rules.
However, these days are coming to an end. The main reason Local Authorities have failed to do proper enforcement work is a lack of resources to fund it. Under these new rules though, they will be able to keep the penalty notice fees and the rent repaid.
It will, therefore, be very much in their interest to do as much enforcement work as possible. The income from these penalties will allow them to take on new staff and start enforcing the law properly.
It is CRITICAL therefore that (if you are a landlord) you are fully up to date with all your legal obligations, particularly those which will allow Local Authorities to impose these penalties. Don’t think that just because it has not happened in the past it will not happen in the future – it will.
Only those landlords who are fully compliant with the law will be safe. Make sure this is you!
One in four renters try not to pay for buy to let damage
Buy to let tenants would rather pay a professional to repair damage to their rented home or keep quiet and hope the landlord does not ask them for any money, says new research.
The survey gives landlords an interesting insight to how tenants would deal with damage they may have caused.
One in four would not tell the landlord, although most would offer to pay for repairs – but many would wait for a bill from the landlord before parting with any cash.
The research prompted a range of responses form tenants:
- 15% would hire a professional tradesman to carry out the repairs
- 11% would try a DIY remedy
- 1% would try to hide the damage
- 58% would report the damage
- 24% would offer upfront to pay for the repair
- 7% would offer a contribution towards the bill
- 27% would not offer any money unless asked
While most tenants will not actively try to do damage to a property, accidents do happen, and even well-meaning and reliable tenants can end up inflicting significant damage during their tenancy.
The best advice for landlords would be to encourage an open and honest relationship with their tenants, so that tenants don’t feel scared or nervous about reporting any damages as soon as they happen. Having a direct relationship with your tenants, as opposed to using an agent or management service, can be a great way to build trust and avoid any nasty surprises further down the line.
Marr warned that failing to report a serious repair can end up costing renters more.
A kitchen tap was broken during a party at one rented home. The tenant tried a DIY repair and flooded the kitchen, causing even more damage. She had to pay several hundred pounds instead of around £100 the tap repair would have cost.