London’s renters face a postcode lottery when dealing with criminal operators, with just five councils responsible for 87% of fines on landlords and letting agents who break the law, our latest research has found.
Across much of London, landlords committing housing offences are just as likely to get into trouble as a result of tenants claiming back rent, as local councils fining or prosecuting them.
With a new national database of landlords being introduced by the Renters’ Rights Bill, we’re concerned that thousands of criminal landlords will dodge the government’s new rules unless it is made easier for tenants to claim rent refunds for reporting them.
We’re expecting amendments to this effect to be debated in the House of Lords tomorrow.
Generation Rent examined data submitted by councils to the Greater London Authority’s Rogue Landlord Database. In total, London Boroughs fined landlords and letting agents £2.3m in 2024 and £3.6m in 2023 – though the latter included £1.4m in fines on a single property in Kensington and Chelsea. Waltham Forest issued fines worth £1.75m, followed by Camden (£867,000), Barking & Dagenham (£319,000) and Newham (£297,000). Just 18 councils submitted enforcement data to the GLA for 2023 and/or 2024.
The most common offences related to landlords’ failure to get an appropriate licence. While around 7% of private landlords in England are subject to existing licensing schemes, all landlords will need to be part of the private rented property database being introduced under the Renters’ Rights Bill.
Currently, landlords who fail to obtain a licence when required, fail to comply with an improvement notice served by the council, or illegally evict or harass their tenant, can be prosecuted or fined by the council, or be required to pay back up to 12 months’ of rent via a Rent Repayment Order (RRO). Tenants can apply for an RRO for failure to get a licence without the council taking action first.
Waltham Forest is the most prolific council, pursuing fines or prosecutions relating to 104 properties in 2023 and 2024. In the same period, 13 renters in the borough successfully claimed rent back from landlords who had broken the law, according to data held by the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).
Of the other 17 London boroughs that submitted data to the Greater London Authority, 120 private rented properties were subject to fines or prosecutions in 2023 and 2024. In the same period, there were 139 successful applications for RROs by private tenants through the First-Tier Tribunal in those boroughs. Across London, there are likely to have been many more RRO claims settled by landlords before a tribunal hearing. Rewarding renters for calling out their landlords’ rule-breaking is just as important as council enforcement.
Rent Repayment Orders are not currently well-known because so few private rented homes need a licence. The private rented property database, covering all private landlords and their properties, is intended to help professionalise private renting and give tenants much more information about their potential home and landlord, allowing them to make more informed decisions.
However, unlike licensing offences, under existing proposals only councils will be able to take action against landlords who fail to register on the database. Tenants will be able to apply for a Rent Repayment Order, but only after the council has fined the landlord and if the landlord then continues to fail to register.
Relying on cash-strapped councils to enforce the new database will weaken tenants’ incentive to check if their own landlord has an active profile, leading to higher levels of non-compliance by landlords.
We are calling on the government to amend the Renters’ Rights Bill to make landlords liable for a Rent Repayment Order as soon as they fail to register on the database. The Bill is currently making its way through the House of Lords, where Liberal Democrat Peer Baroness Thornhill has tabled a number of amendments on this issue which are due to be debated tomorrow.
The new private rented sector database should give tenants far more information about the property they plan to rent and the person they plan to rent from, helping them make informed decisions. But, if landlords don’t have an incentive to join the database, it risks being useless for tenants.
The threat of having to pay back many months’ of rent should spur landlords into registering on the new database, but as things stand, only cash-strapped councils will have responsibility for making checks. That means the government risks seeing large numbers of landlords dodging the rules and undermining the new protections the reforms are designed to provide tenants.
Tenants are better placed than councils to spot landlord wrongdoing, and could act as an army enforcing the new rules. But we need a strong incentive to check our landlord is on the database and then take action if they’re not. If the prospect of a refund is all in the hands of the council, many tenants will be put off from checking in the first place.
Encouraging tenants to check their landlord’s compliance on the database would also present an opportunity for the government to raise awareness of wider renters’ rights by presenting essential information on the database website. Word of mouth about the potential rewards of checking the database would be particularly helpful in reaching renters who are currently unlikely to be aware of the Bill and who rent from landlords who rely on their tenants’ ignorance of their rights. Read more
Data for 2023 and 2024 was taken from the First-Tier Tribunal Property Chamber (RROs) and the GLA Rogue Landlord Checker (Civil penalties and prosecutions). Flat Justice prepared the data from the Tribunal for analysis. Thanks to Generation Rent volunteer Sam Whitehall for preparing the GLA data.
