A landlord who persistently broke residential lettings rules has been banned from operating in a landmark legal ruling. Julie Stoddern, of Camborne,...
Archive

Local media in the Homes Counties report that two arrests were made after police were called by a lettings agency where...
05 March 2021
From: Breaking News

Two letting agents have been ordered to pay £16,000 to a landlord after their activities were found to be unregistered and...
24 February 2021
From: Breaking News

Essex Police Force has tweeted a pair of photographs that go to prove agents should check a property before going on a...
17 February 2021
From: Breaking News

A 24 month community order and 200 hours of unpaid work are the price being paid for an unlawful eviction. Buy to...
15 February 2021
From: Breaking News

Letting agents should help landlords through a blizzard of red tape and regulation cause by local licensing schemes, a PropTech entrepreneur...
10 February 2021
From: Breaking News

A lettings agency has called in the police after a protest involving anti-agent activists demanding compensation for past tenants. The Eastern Daily...
24 December 2020
From: Breaking News

There are growing calls for so-called ‘exempt accommodation’ to face the same controls that are exerted over the rest of the...
21 December 2020
From: Breaking News

Restaurant staff were kept in “dangerous and overcrowded” conditions by a property company and its landlord-director, a court has heard. The company...
18 December 2020
From: Breaking News

The This Is Money website is carrying a story of a London rental property where the front door was left open...
03 November 2020
From: Breaking News

A fake lettings agent has been caught trying to cheat prospective tenants out of £1,500 which she claimed was a deposit...
26 October 2020
From: Breaking News

A crooked lettings agent stole almost £30,000 from dozens of clients to prevent his business from going bankrupt. Tim Catherall, of Nottinghamshire,...
28 September 2020
From: Breaking News

A police force is warning potential tenants to check before handing over money after scammers conned people into making rent pre-payments...
23 September 2020
From: Breaking News

West Midlands Police have revealed that a major drugs racket being run by a rogue landlord from his properties in Coventry...
16 September 2020
From: Breaking News

A new report demands that online rental platforms and portals allowing direct advertising by clients do more to deter fake landlords...
04 September 2020
From: Breaking News

A Derbyshire estate agent has escaped a driving ban after being found smoking cannabis in a car. Annabelle Lamb was spotted with...
13 August 2020
From: Breaking News

Back in March 2019 we covered the story that Weymouth council in Dorset wanted a landlord licensing scheme for a town...
04 August 2020
From: Breaking News

Which? is warning prospective renters to beware scam lettings agencies and scam landlords following a case where £5,600 was conned out...
03 August 2020
From: Breaking News

A law firm is warning that agents and landlords should carefully follow correct procedures if they suspect a rented property is...
03 August 2020
From: Breaking News

The extension to the evictions ban will compound the suffering of victims of domestic violence and anti-social behaviour. That’s the view of...
16 June 2020
From: Breaking News

A buy to let investor who kept a group of men as slaves – making them work 90-hour weeks in return...
04 June 2020
From: Breaking News

A commission investigating affordable homes in the UK has called for annual private sector rent increases to be limited to a...
05 May 2020
From: Breaking News
12 March 2020
From: Breaking News

The controversial Liverpool council licensing scheme is to be policed through the use of what the authority calls “cutting-edge big data...
06 March 2020
From: Breaking News

The West Midlands Police force says it’s secured what it calls a “landmark court order” against a rogue landlord who turned...
03 March 2020
From: Breaking News

A jailed letting agent in a long-running legal saga has now been told she must repay her victims some £43,000 -...
25 February 2020
From: Breaking News

Generation Rent - an outspoken organisation sharply critical of lettings agents and many aspects of the private rental sector - is...
06 February 2020
From: Breaking News

A landlord has been ordered to pay almost £20,000 and has been told by a judge that he was meaner than...
10 December 2019
From: Breaking News

One might have thought that if private rental tenants were as badly treated as some people suggest, housing would be their...
18 November 2019
From: Breaking News

The safeagent accreditation scheme says the next government should not scrap landlord licensing as some trade groups have requested, but should...
12 November 2019
From: Breaking News

A leading trade body says the government’s latest injection of funds to help local councils root out rogue operators in the...
06 November 2019
From: Breaking News

A landlord who made a perverted request to take photographs of a teenager in her underwear has had his request for...
29 October 2019
From: Breaking News

A police force has issued a warning to agents and owners of short-let properties to look for signs of modern slavery...
28 October 2019
From: Breaking News

New analysis by Direct Line for Business reveals a surge in the number of police investigations into the theft of electricity,...
17 October 2019
From: Breaking News

A call has been made for the best letting agencies and other rental sector professionals to show how they comply with...
01 October 2019
From: Breaking News

A joint operation between Avon and Somerset Police and North Somerset council has uncovered a string of issues connected with rental...
02 September 2019
From: Breaking News

Police in South Shields have called for the sharing of information about tenants in HMOs - and a council is considering...
29 August 2019
From: Breaking News

An MP says he will raise with local police chiefs a series of claims from landlords and tenants concerning a lettings...
16 May 2019
From: Breaking News

The Association of Residential Lettings Agents says it backs a new Trading Standards-led body which will enforce the Fees Ban starting on...
18 April 2019
From: Breaking News

Prospective tenants are being warned about a fraud scam that cons people into paying an advance fee to rent a property. The...
04 April 2019
From: Breaking News

An 18 month probe by different authorities has led to a £4,000 fine for an HMO owner in the Highlands. The local...
13 March 2019
From: Breaking News

The High Court has ruled that the government’s Right to Rent scheme breaches human rights law. Under the Right to Rent landlords are...
01 March 2019
From: Breaking News

The head of a Hertfordshire lettings agency has pleaded guilty to managing a brothel, according to a statement from the police. He’s...
26 February 2019
From: Breaking News

A local authority in the Midlands has admitted what many people have believed for some time - despite a slew of...
22 February 2019
From: Breaking News

Council enforcement officers have raided a house in Wembley, north London, and found 19 tenants paying a landlord £1,000 a week. Brent council’s...
08 February 2019
From: Breaking News

A council accused of paying over £500,000 to a landlord it had already ruled as unfit to rent out property is...
22 January 2019
From: Breaking News

A controversial Labour-controlled local authority which already has 91 per cent of its private rental properties inside licensing schemes is now...
17 January 2019
From: Breaking News

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of a letting agent who appears not to be in any redress scheme, is being investigated by...
14 January 2019
From: Breaking News

The Daily Mail has reported on a massive buy to let fiddle which involved a £10.8m property empire, rents totalling £500,000...
08 January 2019
From: Breaking News

The owner of a buy to let property already shut by police has been fined by a court in Devon. In June...
18 December 2018
From: Breaking News

Shock figures released by an insurance company suggest that councils are woefully unable to police new regulations regarding mandatory HMO licensing. Figures...
06 December 2018
From: Breaking News

Two thirds of local authorities in England and Wales brought no prosecutions against private landlords in 2017/18 according to research by the...
29 November 2018
From: Breaking News

The controversial landlord Fergus Wilson says he has purchased a Body Worn Camera for £75 in a bid to avoid at...
27 November 2018
From: Breaking News

A former City marketing executive is suing a lettings agency for £1.4m in a row over alleged harassment in 2010. Agent Caroline...
06 November 2018
From: Breaking News

A property investment company operating a Ponzi scheme based on claims of capital appreciation and rental income has been shut down...
05 November 2018
From: Breaking News

The head of a lettings agency has refused to sign a pledge document put to him by a protest group - and...
01 October 2018
From: Breaking News

One of Scotland’s top lettings agents is warning of “an air of criminality” in the rental industry north of the border. His...
26 September 2018
From: Breaking News

Two private landlords have been found guilty of managing Houses in Multiple Occupation with dangerous and sub-standard conditions, following a successful...
26 September 2018
From: Breaking News

There has been a furious response from landlords and tenants to a police letter which says a local force is not...
25 September 2018
From: Breaking News

A lettings agent described as ‘rogue’ by a London council, along with two lettings companies, have been heavily fined for operating...
19 September 2018
From: Breaking News

There’s a growing call for more police action over tracing a lettings agent who is apparently missing - as is some...
17 September 2018
From: Breaking News

Shadow housing minister John Healey has given his backing to a Labour MP’s attempt to introduce a mandatory national register for...
11 September 2018
From: Breaking News

The police have launched a fraud probe against a Norfolk estate agency which closed in June. The Eastern Daily Press (EDP) reports...
04 September 2018
From: Breaking News

In our previous blog, we looked at the definitions outlined by the CPRs. In our next blog we’ll look at the...
29 August 2018
From: Sponsored Content

The government’s controversial Right To Rent policy is to be challenged in the High Court just before Christmas. It was announced in...
09 August 2018
From: Breaking News

A London council has agreed to a TV crew taking part in a raid on an overcrowded and unlicensed HMO. The surprise...
07 August 2018
From: Breaking News

A London landlord has been ordered to pay over £13,000 for breaching the conditions of his licence as a result of...
01 August 2018
From: Breaking News

The former office manager of an estate agency in Scunthorpe conned her employer out of over £34,000, a court has heard. Local...
30 July 2018
From: Breaking News

A letting agent responsible for a property in Huddersfield which caught fire and killed two young boys has been jailed for...
20 July 2018
From: Breaking News

A respected property lawyer says she wants a change in the law to prevent unscrupulous landlords from offering accommodation in return for sex. Liz...
10 July 2018
From: Breaking News

A newspaper in Northumbria says local police are treating a fire at a lettings agency as a deliberate arson attack. Police are...
27 June 2018
From: Breaking News

The High Court has this afternoon agreed to allow a judicial review of the government’s Right to Rent policy. Right to Rent...
06 June 2018
From: Breaking News

West Midlands Police and Birmingham council teamed up to investigate a property in the city which was riddled with health and...
11 April 2018
From: Breaking News

Letting agents have responded with enthusiasm to the government’s announcement over the Easter weekend that the industry would in future have...
03 April 2018
From: Breaking News

The government has this morning - Easter Sunday - announced a crackdown on rogue letting agents in the shape of a...
01 April 2018
From: Breaking News

The former owner and director of a Plymouth lettings agency are to stand trial on charges of fraud, false accounting and...
12 March 2018
From: Breaking News

A group of criminals threw a large concrete block through a window to gain access to an estate and letting agency. The...
21 February 2018
From: Breaking News

The director of a lettings agency who who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds to spend on holidays and other luxuries...
16 February 2018
From: Breaking News

A man is reported to have launched “a campaign of harassment” against a lettings agent just an hour after signing a...
07 December 2017
From: Breaking News

After the series of anti-buy to let measures contained in recent Budgets, it is perhaps unsurprising that a survey of landlords...
21 November 2017
From: Breaking News

Police officers have seized well over £6,000 worth of cannabis and drug manufacturing equipment after being tipped off by a letting...
07 November 2017
From: Breaking News

A dawn raid on a home in north London has discovered 35 men bedding down on mattresses in every room except...
21 September 2017
From: Breaking News

According to recent government figures, the average letting agent’s fee is £223 and 4.3 million householders pay this amount or thereabouts...
14 September 2017
From: Sponsored Content

The government is being urged by the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) to do more to enforce compulsory fee disclosure. Since May 2015,...
06 September 2017
From: Breaking News

Council officers discovered men living mattress to mattress inside a run-down flat above a commercial premises during a dawn raid. Police and...
24 July 2017
From: Breaking News

A property campaigner says the failure of the police to investigate a lettings agent who was eventually convicted of fraud after...
20 July 2017
From: Breaking News

An inquest into the suicide of a well known local estate agent in the West Country has heard that there had...
03 July 2017
From: Breaking News

Police in Yorkshire are on the look out for empty rental properties which could be used for ‘sting’ operations tackling burglaries...
03 July 2017
From: Breaking News

Research by the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) has identified that some 93% of local authorities have failed to issue a...
06 June 2017
From: Breaking News

Media reports suggest the Manchester Arena bomber was renting a short-let property in the centre of the city before he committed...
26 May 2017
From: Breaking News

Another London borough is consulting on a further extension of its existing selective licensing - this time it’s Harrow council. It wants...
20 April 2017
From: Breaking News

The controversial landlord who made provocative remarks about some tenants leaving ‘curry smells’ in his properties is now complaining to the...
04 April 2017
From: Breaking News

A landlady has been fined £15,000 for failing to license and manage a house in multiple occupation. Sharon Jacobs was also ordered...
13 March 2017
From: Breaking News

The director of a letting agency in Devon has been released on bail until June 2. In November and December, Letting Agent...
22 February 2017
From: Breaking News

A landlord is facing prosecution for failing to comply with various HMO regulations. For the last two days, Paul Turner has appeared...
25 January 2017
From: Breaking News

A Prohibition Order has been served on the owner of a flat being let to an elderly couple - one of...
20 January 2017
From: Breaking News

A former administrator at a Savills letting office has admitted embezzling around £16,000 from the firm over a five and a...
11 January 2017
From: Breaking News

No fewer than 14 ‘pop up brothels’ have been discovered in one seaside town in six months, with all of them...
06 January 2017
From: Breaking News

A leading personal finance journalist - and a former editor of Landlord Today - has used the columns of right wing...
03 January 2017
From: Breaking News

A local newspaper says a Plymouth lettings agent has been arrested by police on suspicion of theft, fraud and money laundering. Last...
23 December 2016
From: Breaking News

A letting agent whose office closure prompted a police investigation has issued a statement saying she has had a stroke. The agency, Drake...
05 December 2016
From: Breaking News

The Residential Landlords Association has roasted the enforcement policies and provisions for the controversial Rent Smart Wales initiative which begins in...
10 November 2016
From: Breaking News

Specialist Build To Rent developer Moda has announced a large scheme on the site of a former police headquarters in Scotland...
03 November 2016
From: Breaking News

Three men have received prison sentences of up to 28 months after a nationwide lettings scam was unearthed by trading standards...
20 October 2016
From: Breaking News

A Norwich landlord has been prosecuted “for putting lives at risk” according to the local council. Piang Fui Pun has pleaded guilty...
17 October 2016
From: Breaking News

The Thames Valley Police says it wants to speak to a man in connection with an investigation in which a number of...
30 August 2016
From: Breaking News

The problem of cannabis ‘farmers’ using privately rented properties to mass-produce the drug is at its worst in the West Midlands,...
11 August 2016
From: Breaking News

Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward after a letting agency was broken into over the weekend. At some point between 4.30pm...
10 August 2016
From: Breaking News

A landlord who illegally converted a house to squeeze 28 tenants into just seven rooms has been handed a £20,000 fine...
07 July 2016
From: Breaking News

There has been yet another prosecution over an unsafe house in multiple occupation. Syed Masum Ali appeared in Stafford Magistrates Court and...
07 July 2016
From: Breaking News

There was a series of raids on HMOs led by a local authority early one morning at the end of last...
08 June 2016
From: Breaking News

A landlord has been prosecuted for both illegal sub-letting and illegal eviction at the same time - an occurrence which is...
26 May 2016
From: Breaking News

The Residential Landlords’ Association has revealed what it calls “worryingly low levels of enforcement of rented housing regulations” by local authorities. Using...
29 April 2016
From: Breaking News

A letting agency is being investigated by a local council and the police after it closed suddenly last month. Dukes Letting Department,...
16 March 2016
From: Breaking News

A tenant has been found guilty of an assault of a letting agency staff member and has been ordered to do...
11 March 2016
From: Breaking News

A London lettings has tweeted that it does not share the view of one of its own branch managers who said...
07 March 2016
From: Breaking News

No action is to be taken over a lettings agency which has closed leaving landlords and tenants with a reported combined loss...
07 March 2016
From: Breaking News

Police in Scotland are clamping down on what they call “gangster landlords” who are using the lettings sector for money laundering. A...
03 March 2016
From: Breaking News

A letting agency that has been the subject of a BBC investigation and has gone into liquidation in controversial circumstances has...
27 January 2016
From: Breaking News

Letting agents are being urged to help tackle what the police are calling “modern slavery” happening in communities across Britain. Modern slavery...
04 December 2015
From: Breaking News

A letting agent featured on a BBC Watchdog ‘Rogue Traders’ show has told a local newspaper that he is pursuing legal...
23 November 2015
From: Breaking News

One council’s attempt to crack down on rogue landlords has been branded a "complete failure" because half of its HMOs are...
18 November 2015
From: Breaking News

A series of raids on privately let properties in the westcountry appear to have taken place as a way of holding...
09 November 2015
From: Breaking News

New legislation designed to reform Scotland’s private rental sector could make it harder for agents and landlords to tackle anti-social behaviour...
04 November 2015
From: Breaking News

A police force is appealling to landlords and letting agents to allow their void privately-let properties to be used as potential...
28 October 2015
From: Breaking News

Letting Agent Today last week reported on Lancaster Property Network Management when it went into voluntary liquidation - now the agency...
23 October 2015
From: Breaking News

Elgin Management letting agency in Liverpool is warning tenants following an incident when a bogus letting agent entered the home of...
22 October 2015
From: Breaking News

The manager of a Lancaster letting agency dealing chiefly with students says he will co-operate with any police investigation into his...
16 October 2015
From: Breaking News

A letting agent is reported to have lied to police about his name when he was tracked down by officers investigating...
22 September 2015
From: Breaking News

Right To Rent immigration checks is leading to a situation where lawful tenants are being refused housing according to the Residential...
07 September 2015
From: Breaking News

A letting agent who fled Britain to India, leaving landlords and tenants out of pocket and his staff’s wages unpaid, has...
04 September 2015
From: Breaking News

The police says it is continuing to investigate the disappearance of 59-year-old Alec Warburton, a Swansea landlord. Detectives are carrying out a...
02 September 2015
From: Breaking News

Enforcement officers have swooped on three addresses in east London in the latest bid to clampdown on rogue landlords and so-called...
18 August 2015
From: Breaking News

The owner of a Leeds lettings agent fought back when masked men armed with a hammer, baton and metal bar raided...
14 August 2015
From: Breaking News

Police say a man has been arrested on suspicion of fraud following the closure of east of England letting agency Kirby...
07 August 2015
From: Breaking News

There have been angry scenes at a consultation meeting as a local authority seeks to extend its licensing scheme - thought...
07 August 2015
From: Breaking News

Fergus Wilson, the controversial buy to let guru who reportedly owns around 1,000 rental properties, is to stand for Police and...
05 August 2015
From: Breaking News

Mystery surrounds the fate of Kirby Property Management, a letting agency with offices at Cambourne, Cambridge and St Neots in the...
31 July 2015
From: Breaking News

The police have told letting agents and landlords that they are in a unique position to spot - and prevent -...
31 July 2015
From: Breaking News

A local authority has refused to issue a private landlord licence after it was revealed the applicant had a conviction for...
29 July 2015
From: Breaking News

An assistant lettings agency manager in Pinner, Middlesex, has been praised by police after her brave response to witnessing an elderly...
21 July 2015
From: Breaking News

Channel 5 tomorrow airs the first episode of Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords, a six-part series which starts with the story of...
23 June 2015
From: Breaking News

A north of England letting agent has made an outspoken attack on “bad tenants’ who hide behind apparent “legal loopholes.” Tariq Zarin...
12 June 2015
From: Breaking News

An agent wrongly accused of fraud has described the “hell” he went through following allegations that money had been stolen from...
11 June 2015
From: Breaking News

A landlord has been jailed for four years for cultivating cannabis. Sixty-year-old James Sullivan was thought to have been overseeing the cultivation...
10 June 2015
From: Breaking News

Landlords and agents are being warned to remain vigilant as new figures reveal the extent of cannabis cultivation in the UK. Direct...
05 June 2015
From: Breaking News

"Stop right there. Hands above your head. Don't move. Mavis, dial 999." Mr D Smith (MARLA, NFoPP) removes his Glock 19...