Councils should weed out criminal landlords, RLA says

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has called on councils to do more to root out ‘criminal’ landlords providing sub-standard accommodation.

The RLA, which represents private sector residential landlords in England and Wales, cited a report from Citizens Advice which maintained that while many landlords responded quickly to complaints about standards, a small number were still taking too long to resolve problems.

A YouGov survey of over 2,000 private renting adults in England, carried out by Citizens Advice, found 27 per cent of those who had reported a problem were made to wait over a month for a resolution.

A Freedom of Information request (FoI) submitted by the RLA in 2016, found that 126 out of the 237 councils that responded had brought no prosecutions against landlords between 2011 and 2014.

Alan Ward, chairman of the RLA, urged: “Every tenant has the right to expect a safe, legal and secure home. Whilst the majority of landlords provide a good service to their tenants, there are a minority who do not, and who have no place in a modern rental sector.

“Councils have the powers to do something about them. What is needed is a greater will to use these powers to root out the criminal landlords once and for all.”