Self-managing landlords who think they don’t have the same compliance obligations as agents could face serious repercussions, Trading Standards chiefs have warned.

At a rental round table debate led by PropTech supplier PayProp, Emma Cooke – policy and information manager at the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agent Team – said: “You open yourself up to prosecution – not just from Trading Standards but under the Housing Act from Environmental Health, as well as licensing laws.

“You could be fined or end up being banned from acting as a landlord. Once you’ve got that reputation as a bad landlord, nobody would want to actually rent from you and no letting agent would want to use you, because if you’re not adhering to the law, the letting agent is going to have to deal with that.” 

At the same debate, agents and landlords hoping for less regulation in the future were told that they are likely to be disappointed.

Neil Cobbold, chief sales officer at PayProp, told the event that the recommendations of the Regulation of Property Agents report in 2019 – likely to be acted upon next year – showed that the whole rental sector would be impacted.

“Government is there to protect the people and look after the consumer. Currently, to do that, we’ve got a lot of piecemeal legislation, and it is only ever going to increase. [But] that legislation has been written with a view to protecting the people” said Cobbold.

With more regulatory reform on the way, Nathan Emerson, chief executive at Propertymark, told the debate that it’s not just governments that should take action against non-compliant landlords and tenants.  

“We’ve got to deal effectively with rogue landlords and ‘career tenants’ that know how to manipulate the law. We can’t be afraid to clear them out so we have a nice, transparent marketplace that everybody feels comfortable in. Everybody’s got to be prepared to help: government can’t do that on their own, professional bodies can’t do that on their own.” 

Download and read the full report to learn more about industry regulation enforcement and when the panel expects the next raft of changes to be implemented.