The first local authority in England bringing in blanket licensing of all private rental properties within its boundaries is unable to say how many prosecutions it has brought against landlords over the last five years.
The Residential Landlords Association made a Freedom of Information request, and described the response from Newham Council in London as ‘pitiful’.
The RLA said it was staggered that the authority, which requires all private rental property to be licensed by January 1, did not have the information to hand.
Newham insists that it is bringing in blanket licensing because it has identified problems of poor property and tenancy management.
The council said it was unable to “… provide accurate historical reports on the number of prosecutions against landlords for the last five years”.
It went on to blame “a change in recording procedures last year and a change in computerised systems for reporting purposes” for its failure to provide the figures. It said that to produce the figures would require an officer to manually interrogate all files.
Newham could only produce figures for 2011/12. These show that the council prosecuted 31 landlords.
The RLA has repeated its call for the council to abandon its plans for blanket licensing, and to use existing legislation to actively pursue and prosecute criminal landlords.
Licences applied for now will cost £150 and last five years. After January 1, the cost will rise to £500.
Licensing would usually be the responsibility of the landlord, but could also fall into the remit of the managing agent. Failure to license could mean fines of up to £20,000, and the council could seek a rent repayment order for up to 12 months of rental income. It will also not be possible to use the S.21 procedure for possession if a property has not been licensed.
Shelter has called on all other local authorities to follow Newham Council’s lead. See next story.
Comments
Their 25% wasn't just based on the last 3 years so up to 3 years ago 25% might have been ripped off but in the last 3 years that figure has been reduced to 1/3 of 1%
Well Done Agents well done landlords. This massive improvement dismisses any argument they have against either Agents or Landlords
How about a FOI request to shelter asking how many staff or Patrons of Shelter are Buy to let, Investor or accidental landlords?
Perhaps send the same request to Newham too.
Lets find out how many of these do gooders are actually profiteering from private rental properties.
Seems like Shelter have turned on you guys again, just like they did in May 2011.
Funny how when Shelter make up stuff about Letting Agents you are the first to publish the bad press but when they have a dig at landlords you get all FOI requesty
Shelter just make stuff up, they are rubbish at maths and when someone else does the maths they just big up a non point to make a point.
I am good at maths - 97.65% of all tenants across the whole country did not make a single complaint about their landlord or their letting agent.
98.6 % of properties in this self regulated philanthropic industry do not have problems with their Gas, Electric or damp.
Despite Shelter's previous claims that 25% of Britons had been ripped of by letting agents (based on some criminally negligent data manipulation) the actual figure for the past 3 year is 220,000 that is 0.35% of the population given the 80./20 split 0.25 % of the population have a problem with Agent and 0.07% have a problem with Landlords.
This is turning into a sport. rework the Shelter press release and tell the truth they would rather you didn't hear.
Well done agents, well done landlords from Shelters research we are all doing very well thank you.
31 landlords prosecuted within in a year.
Didn't I read on here last week that there are 35,000 private lets in Newham?
Less than .01%
Either they have the best landlords in the country operating in the borough or someone is not taking their job too seriously.