Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Only a third of tenant complaints about potentially unsafe properties led to inspections, highlighting how some unscrupulous landlords are able to house tenants in squalid conditions with impunity.
This is according to Freedom of Information data obtained from the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) for 2021-2023.
Half of all inspections conducted under the Home Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) were conducted by just 20 local governments, and 16% of local governments were unable to provide inspection figures.
In a worrying sign of poor record-keeping, 37% of councils failed to provide any housing tenure-specific data relating to tenant complaints.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Homeowners Association, said: “Renters should not have to put up with unsafe housing. Ultimately, landlords are responsible for the quality of the housing they provide, but renters must have confidence in their local government’s ability to act when tenants need help.”
“Our research highlights a worrying picture of councils struggling to respond adequately to tenant complaints. What’s more, many councils don’t have the data they need to properly track enforcement activity.
“Calls for new laws to tackle unscrupulous and criminal landlords are a distraction from the fact that councils routinely fail to make the most of the powers given to them. The focus must be on swift and consistent enforcement, which is in the interests of households and responsible landlords.”
If an inspection finds any hazards, the council can take a range of enforcement actions, including issuing an improvement notice to force the landlord to rectify any issues found. The landlord will then be prohibited from serving a section 21 “no-fault” possession notice for six months.
Despite this, only 7% of HHSRS inspections resulted in improvement notices being issued between 2021 and 2023. More than 50% of such notices were served by just 20 local authorities, and 23 local authorities did not issue any notices at all.
To support increased enforcement against unscrupulous and criminal landlords, the NRLA has called on the next Government to urgently publish the promised review of the HHSRS.
The association said local authorities should publish annual reports on their enforcement activities regarding the private rented housing sector and how they tackle poor practice and low-standard housing issues.
The NRLA also called for the creation of a new National Chief Environmental Health Officer to help with more effective enforcement.