All 33 local authorities in London have signed up to the rogue landlord database introduced by the city’s Mayor in a bid to stamp out bad practice in the private rented sector.
People in London can report rogue practices online and millions of tenants can use the database to check on landlords and letting agents to find out if they have been convicted of housing offences, the first of its kind in the UK.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the fact that all of the councils have signed up to the checker is a major milestone in his efforts to ‘name and shame’ the capital’s unscrupulous landlords and letting agents.
Among the entries now included on the Mayor’s Rogue Landlords and Letting Agents Checker is a high street estate agent chain which was fined a record £35,000 following a prosecution brought by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets after it failed to provide the council with the correct documentation, including gas and fire safety, for a rental property in Whitechapel.
Working voluntarily in partnership with the Mayor, the 32 boroughs and the City of London have committed to submitting records of successful prosecutions and fines to the database which also has a simple ‘report a rogue’ tool, giving renters a central portal to make a complaint about a landlord or agent for the first time.
The Mayor believes the database, published on the City Hall website, will give Londoners greater confidence in renting a home, as well as acting as a clear deterrent to the small minority of landlords and letting agents who behave dishonestly.
Among the records already available is a case involving a residential landlord which was fined a record £150,000 after being prosecuted by London Fire Brigade in May 2017, following a major fire at a block of flats it owned in Westminster in 2011. The fire was so serious 13 people had to be evacuated and the subsequent investigation found a string of fire safety breaches.
The checker was launched last December, fulfilling one of the Mayor’s manifesto commitments and four months in advance of the Government’s National Rogue Landlord Database. However the Government data is only available to councils and the details cannot be accessed by the public.
The Checker forms a key part of the Mayor’s new London Housing Strategy, just launched which sets out his approach to tackling London’s housing crisis. The strategy will be considered by the London Assembly at its next meeting.
The strategy also includes policies to help social tenants and leaseholders, with a further call on the Government to appoint an independent Commissioner for Social Housing Residents, who would act as a watchdog and ensure the voices of those living in social housing are heard at a national level.
This proposal was in the Mayor’s draft strategy and has been strengthened as a result of Londoners’ views from the consultation process, through which a number of respondents called for this Commissioner to be a social housing resident themselves.
The document also outlines plans to spend the additional £1.67 billion the Mayor negotiated with Government to deliver more genuinely affordable homes by 2022, with the majority being for homes based on social rent levels;
It sets out the Mayor’s intention to require the use of resident ballots in estate regeneration schemes which want Mayoral funding where existing affordable homes are being demolished and commits to working with community-led housing organisations to identify a pipeline of schemes by 2021 which could deliver at least 1,000 new homes.
The strategy is being published following a successful public consultation, to which more than 2,000 people responded, more than any statutory housing strategy in the history of the London mayoralty.
‘When I launched the Checker I made it clear unscrupulous landlords and agents would have nowhere to hide. Now, with all local authorities signed up, we have reached an important milestone in protecting London’s renters,’ said Khan.
‘The rental market in the capital is difficult enough to navigate without a small minority of rogue operators exploiting their tenants. This tool will empower Londoners to make an informed choice about where to live,’ he added.
London Fire Brigade’s Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety, Dan Daly, welcomed the news that all London boroughs have now pledged to submit their records to the database. ‘It means every Londoner who rents, wherever they live, will be able to find landlords and letting agents who have been successfully prosecuted or faced civil enforcement for housing offences, including those prosecuted by us for fire safety breaches,’ he said.
‘It should also act as a deterrent for the small number of dishonest landlords who pose a large risk to their tenants,’ he added.
Carrie Kus, director of the Residential Landlords Association, also backed the move. ‘We all want to see criminal landlords rooted out of the rental market completely. This will give tenants the support they need to properly distinguish between the majority of law abiding and decent landlords and those landlords who bring the sector into disrepute,’ she added.
According to Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, landlords and agents already require references from renters before starting a tenancy, so it’s only right and fair that renters have a chance to vet their prospective landlords and agents.
‘Private renters in London will be able to make more informed decisions when moving home through this tool, and greater transparency should help to reduce the number of criminals operating in the capital’s rental market. This resource should be should be rolled out nationally to help drive up standards in the private rented sector across the country,’ he said.
