The Generation Rent activist group want it to be easier for tenants to trigger Rent Repayment Orders by complaining about landlords.
In a controversial statement it says: “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.”
And it expects its backers in Parliament to put last minute amendments to the Bill to make it easier to take more from landlords via the RRO system.
Generation Rent’s research into the issue appears to have been confined solely to London, where it says 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.
In total, London councils – overwhelmingly Labour – 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). Some 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.
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.
The activist group says: “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 in the Renters Rights Bill 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.
The Generation Rent statement goes on:
“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.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today