Possible jail sentence and community orders for rogue landlords are under consideration.
A consultation launched today by the independent Sentencing Council appears to want much tougher non-financial penalties for a wider number of offences.
These include:
The Sentencing Council claims it’s been contacted by so-called stakeholders – local councils, the government and lawyers – seeking a review of sentences.
The stakeholders claim there are two problems at the moment.
The first is “low level, inconsistent and diverging penalties” imposed by magistrates and higher courts.
The second is that some sentences apparently fail to reflect the gravity of offences “especially in regard to unlawful eviction, which could include vulnerable victims permanently losing their homes or belongings.”
The Sentencing Council says that official figures show low volumes of unlawful eviction and unlawful harassment cases.
But a statement from the body says: “Research in the charity sector suggests … a significant number of illegal eviction and harassment activities … not being brought to prosecution through the criminal justice system.”
And the council claims that the “high proportion of low level and inconsistent sentences for these types of offences is widely recognised as a contributing factor to the reluctance of local authorities to prosecute.”
The Sentencing Council goes on to say: “It seems appropriate that these harms are reflected, at least in some cases, with non-financial penalties, such as custodial sentences or community orders.”
The consultation launched today concerns guidelines for sentencing.
It includes two guidelines covering the nine offences of unlawful eviction and unlawful harassment, and four guidelines covering offences related to HMOs and other housing standards.
It’s a lengthy consultation document and you can see it in its entirety here: https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk
Responses have a deadline of April 9.
This article is taken from Landlord Today