Tenants in the UK need further protection from rent increases, retaliatory eviction and harassment so they can make complaints about repairs and maintenance with fear, says a new report.
The publication from the powerful House of Commons Parliamentary Committee on Housing, Communities and Local Government calls for a specialist housing court to provide a more accessible route to redress for tenants.
‘There is a clear power imbalance in parts of the sector, with tenants often unwilling to complain to landlords about the conditions in their homes for fear of retaliation. Consumer rights are meaningless without the ability to use them in practice,’ the report says.
It also recommends that the Law Commission should undertake a review of private rented sector legislation and that the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) should be replaced with a more straightforward set of quality standards.
According to the committee the legislative framework through which local authorities derive their powers to intervene in the sector, is outdated and too complex and it calls for a new approach to bring more clarity for tenants, landlords and local authorities.
When it comes to action against landlords who do not meet the required standards, the committee’s report says that enforcement by local authorities has been far too low and inconsistent.
‘While prosecution statistics may not reflect the informal enforcement work undertaken by many local authorities, it is nevertheless striking that six out of 10 councils had not prosecuted a single landlord in 2016,’ the report points out.
‘While the Government has introduced a range of legislation in recent years to strengthen protections for tenants and new powers for local authorities, including civil penalties and banning orders for criminal landlords, these powers are meaningless if local authorities do not, or cannot, enforce them in practice,’ it points out.
It took account of evidence from local authorities that they do not have sufficient resources to undertake their enforcement duties and it suggests that a new fund should be established to support local authorities with this work, especially those that prioritise informal approaches to enforcement.
‘While local authorities have welcomed their new powers to retain civil penalties and rent repayment orders, some felt this did not go far enough. Local authorities that pursue more informal enforcement strategies are unlikely to generate significant funding through civil penalties. Further, many councils told us there was often a financial disincentive to pursue prosecutions against criminal landlords, as the costs of investigations were rarely recovered through the courts,’ the report adds.
It believes that a national benchmarking scheme should be introduced to support local authorities with enforcement and councils should publish their private rented sector enforcement strategies online.
‘We heard that some local authorities lacked the political will to address low standards in the sector. To make the best use of limited resources, local authorities need to work together more effectively and share best practice. Local authorities should be able to levy more substantial fines, which might stand a chance of breaking the business models of the worst offenders,’ it explains.
Councils should have power to confiscate properties from landlords committing the most egregious offences and whose business models rely on the exploitation of vulnerable tenants.
‘We heard that there was a need for more robust penalties to deal with the worst, criminal landlords. Civil penalties are not strong enough to deter landlords who are prepared to commit the most serious offences,’ it adds.
Tenants and good landlords are being let down by local authorities unable to properly enforce the powers they already have, according to Alan Ward, chair of the Residential Landlords Association (RLA). He pointed out that RLA research has found that there are over 140 Acts of Parliament and more than 400 regulations affecting the private rented sector.
‘Whilst the MPs on the Committee call for greater powers to protect tenants when they raise complaints about standards in a property, the reality is that these protections already exist and as the Resolution Foundation noted earlier this week, fewer than one-in-ten tenancies are ended by the landlord,’ he said.
‘The problem is that over-stretched councils simply do not have the resources to properly use such powers to protect tenants from the minority of landlords who are criminals and have no place in the sector. We therefore welcome calls by the Committee for greater resources for local authorities and greater political leadership by them to root out criminal landlords,’ he explained.
‘It is vital also that Ministers adopt the Committee’s recommendation for the speedy establishment of a new housing court. This has been a key proposal called for by the RLA which would improve the speed of and access to justice for tenants and landlords. At present the courts are not fit for purpose when seeking to uphold tenant and landlord rights,’ he added.
