Regulation is not punishing rogue landlords, says GW LET

Published: 17/07/2013

Despite the coalition government’s Red Tape Challenge, an initiative designed to reduce unnecessary legislation and its associated costs, landlords and letting agents are facing increasing legal requirements.

The latest regulation - adding to the existing 100 or so already in place – will see landlords check the immigration status of their tenants. An area fraught with complications, there are fears within the industry that landlords will be made immigration scapegoats.

These additional requirements are intended to highlight rogue landlords. GW LET solicitor, Rob Denman, however is far from convinced:

“While the intentions are good in theory, they are poor in practice. The main problem in the attempt to quash rogue landlords is the severe lack of local authority resource to monitor landlord behaviour and address bad practice where necessary.

“Adding more regulations will only stretch these already exhausted resources further, allowing the unscrupulous to continue unnoticed but impede the honest.

“That said one of the more promising changes is the expansion of the Property Ombudsman Scheme which, from April 2014, will include letting agents. This means should a landlord have a complaint about a letting agent they will now have somewhere to go to seek resolution.”

Content correct at time of publication