A senior Savills figure, who chairs the trade body known as The Lettings Industry Council, has issued a warning to the government not too further scare landlords away from the rentals sector.

Theresa Wallace – TLIC chair and head of Savills’ lettings customer service division – has responded to a Daily Telegraph story, based on a freedom of Information request, which has revealed that thousands of landlords have been hit with fines because they did not know their properties had to be licensed. 

Wallace tells the paper: “We don’t have enough landlords and we have lost a lot of them from the sector. Scaring them out is not helping the industry. I don’t think the scheme is very well publicised. Why would anyone think to look on their local authority website? Anybody could be caught out by pure naivety.”

The Telegraph says the information it has secured from a string of local authorities suggests that landlords are typically being fined £10,000-£15,000 for failing to meet licensing scheme rules. 

Many landlords have been caught out by licensing regulations when tenants have an additional person move into a property, making the landlords eligible for additional licensing payments – even if they are unaware. One London borough council is said to have issued 40 fines for this sort of apparent offence, totalling  £172,000.

Wallace adds: “The objective of the licensing scheme is not being met – which was to improve property standards. Just because you have a licence, it doesn’t mean your property is safe to live in.”