Member News
By Chris Norris, policy manager, National Landlords Association - 13th September 2010
All too often the question ‘what can be done to drive rogue landlords out of the housing market?’ is greeted by a deafening silence on the part of landlords and their representatives.
Rogue landlords, the small criminal minority who operate at the fringe of the private-rented sector, are an embarrassment to the vast majority of professional and responsible providers of private sector housing. It is the shame that these operators persist, after so much work by the industry and enforcement agencies, that leads many to try to dismiss the problem or bury their heads in the sand.
However, this needn’t be the case.
England and Wales boast an estimated 1.2 million private landlords, the overwhelming majority of whom offer a high quality service to their tenants and take their responsibility as providers of essential homes very seriously. However, we must acknowledge that within that 1.2 million there are some poor quality landlords.
Most of those ‘bad landlords’ simply fail to comprehend the enormity of the task of providing safe and secure accommodation and require support. The NLA recognises that this is unacceptable and strives to improve standards by providing the practical assistance required to make these landlords and their properties fit for the modern private-rented sector. We know that they need work, but are not necessarily beyond help.
Unfortunately, there exists another category of individual who require a wholly different approach.
There exists, even today, a small number of individuals and companies who deliberately and negligently ignore the wellbeing of their tenants, potentially putting lives at risk. Far from recognisable as landlords, these people are criminals who do deserve to be made accountable for their actions and prosecuted where appropriate.
The NLA agrees wholeheartedly with Shelter and others in the housing industry who say that there can be no hiding place for rogue landlords. There can be no excuses made for the actions of these few. Local authorities have the powers, if not always the resources, to seek out these rogues, and the penalties to deter others. They must use them to ensure that more lives are not blighted by these irresponsible few.
The NLA is calling on local authorities to adopt a zero tolerance approach to the worst excesses of the rental market and give enforcement a higher priority to deal firmly with rogue landlords who choose to exploit their tenants.
If this rogue element within the sector goes unchallenged, then reputable landlords will be irrevocably tarnished and the image of the private-rented sector will be cast back to that of the 1970s.
Article Comments
I don't think there is enough protection for renters out there and not that much help!
The amount of horror stories my friends have told me - it's ridiculous they can occur in a western country!
I am currently having problems with my landlord. She was tryin gto charge my flatmate and I GBP150 each a month for bills! When we asked to look at it we saw that she was including contents insurance, boiler insurance and Service Charges! Luckily my sister is a lawyer and told me this is the responsibility of the landlord so we stopped paying for that and told her. But she totally disagreed with us and said she would not do anything to help us with the flat for the rest of the contract!
Our boiler has been having problems for over 6 months where the water goes cold in the middle of showers and she still has done nothing!
You should be able to report Landlords like this.
CC
15th Sep 2010 at 1:56 pm
Unless tenants are better educated about what they are renting, poor quality housing will continue to be available and put tenants at risk.
We live still with the three R-words, Rachmanism, Rigsby and Rogue when speaking of landlords. We need to get up-to-date.
The previous government focussed on 'targets' which only accredited or licensed the compliant landlords. Chris is right - the rogues kept their heads down.
RLA believes in self regulation for landlords and has an accreditation scheme for landlords which is open to councils to use. NLA has a similar scheme.
RLA calls on all parties to campaign 'educate the tenants'.
Alan Ward, chairman RLA
15th Sep 2010 at 11:31 am
Unless these 1.2m landlords are all registered with the NLA, the RLA or have accreditation, how on earth does anyone know that these so called rogues are in a minority?
It's the trade associations and the accreditation bodies (and to some degree local authorities) that hold the data on landlords so if they were to merge their information, what's left would be the number that continually fall beneath the radar.
Unless we are prepared to accept that visibility is the issue here, and try to establish just how many of the 1.2m are doing it properly, then we are destined to continue to tinker around the edges which is probably why legislative measures continue to fail to a larger degree than they perhaps should.
Sharon Crossland AIRPM
14th Sep 2010 at 4:45 pm
My ex landlord is rogue as rogue can be: didn't use agreed deposit protection scheme, didn't return full deposit, didn't provide keys for the windows, didn't deal with the vermin issue, let himself into the house without our consent, intimidated the women in the house and the cherry on top was him suing me for unpaid council tax through joint and several liability (I'd paid my share and our contracts weren't signed together). This chap is unfortunately symptomatic of London renting. Something serious, significant and urged needs to be done ASAP.
John Punter
14th Sep 2010 at 3:30 pm
The UK seems to be infested with rogue Landlords, cowboy traders and other fraudsters whose offences are regarded as a minor inconvenience for the victim, rather than the major pain that they are. They are frequently regarded as contractual disputes rather than crimes and so nothing is done. There is a complete failure to recognise the impact on the economy of widespread fraud.
Mike
14th Sep 2010 at 9:56 am
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