Rogue landlords give the rest of us a bad name. They harass their tenants, illegally evict them, and generally do the opposite of everything a good landlord would do. But unfortunately, there are an awful lot of rogue landlords operating in this country, and after reading an interesting article in yesterday’s Guardian, I am beginning to think that perhaps a lack of action from local authorities is not necessarily to blame.
Many people, in particular the housing charity, Shelter, are firmly convinced that local authorities are at fault for not prosecuting enough rogue landlords, and therefore doing little to discourage disreputable landlords from exploiting their tenants for profit. The charity cites figures from a recent report indicating that there were only 270 successful prosecutions against rogue landlords in the last twelve months, despite the fact there were more than 11,000 complaints.
However, when you look at the bigger picture, it becomes clear that local authorities are more than willing to act against rogue landlords who abuse their tenants, but thanks to wholesale budget cuts and the sheer size of the problem, most of the time they do not have sufficient resources to do anything other than suggest dispute resolution services.
So apart from providing extra resources to help local authorities deal with the problem, what else can be done?
Regulating the private rented sector would definitely help, as would making sure the police have a greater understanding of a tenant’s rights instead of helping rogue landlords illegally evict tenants—which is often what happens. But in the meantime, with increasing numbers of families forced into the rental sector, the problem of rogue landlords is unlikely to disappear any time soon.
