The Residential Landlords Association has thrown its weight behind many of the recommendations of MPs to further regulate landlords and letting agents.
The RLA argues that the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Private Rented Sector is right when it calls for civil penalties and banning orders to prevent criminal landlords from operating, and is justified in calling for a clearer definition of what constitutes a fit and proper person to rent-out properties.
On the subject of landlord registration, the RLA says MPs rightly propose that government should look at barriers which currently prevent the use of landlords' contact details - using that information would be better than setting up what the RLA calls a new bureaucracy.
However, the RLA objects to the MPs' request for annual electrical safety checks in private rented homes as it claims there is little evidence that such regular checks would achieve a notable improvement in safety.
But otherwise there is broad support from the association. Its chairman, Alan Ward, says the MPs have successfully produced a detailed report that resists headline grabbing hysteria.
The MPs have also called for:
- where a landlord is found to have wilfully breached their legal obligations and failed to rectify the problem, they should be subject to a nationwide banning order, similar to that used for company directors that prevents them from renting properties;
- the Sentencing Council (the body which advises on the consistency of sentences handed out by the judiciary) to provide clear guidance to courts on tools available in responding to breaches of the law as they relate to private rented housing;
- a review of the data available about safety in the private rented sector to provide more detailed information on the nature of safety hazards;
- powers to exist for letting agents found to be behaving inappropriately or abusing their position to be expelled from the entire industry. The MPs say it is an anomaly that such control exists over estate agents but not letting agents.
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Comments
Is this really the best way to solve this issue I am very much against bad landlords, but a lifetime ban! Really Also another question, what will happen to the landlord's property when they are banned