Ben Howlett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-10-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to introduce a requirement that private landlords have a certificate confirming their accommodation has reached a minimum condition before it can be let.

Brandon Lewis

Local Authorities have powers under the Housing Act 2004 to assess the risks and hazards in properties, and to require landlords or owners to remove hazards, and to prosecute if they fail to do so. If a property is found to contain serious hazards, the local authority has a duty to take the most appropriate action in relation to the hazard. This could include serving a notice for the landlord to carry out improvements.

The Government wants to crack down further on the small minority of rogue and criminal landlords who exploit their tenants by renting out unsafe and substandard accommodation and are taking forward proposals through the Housing and Planning Bill. The legislation will enable local authorities to:

• access a database of rogue landlords and letting agents helping councils keep track of them and target enforcement action;
• seek banning orders for the most prolific and serious offenders;
• issue civil penalty notices of up to £5,000 for certain breaches of housing legislation, ring-fencing resources for housing compliance activity;
• extend Rent Repayment Orders to cover situations where a tenant has been illegally evicted, the landlord has failed to rectify a serious health and safety hazard in the property or has breached a banning order, allowing local authorities to retain the money for housing purposes.
• apply a more stringent ‘fit and proper’ person test for landlords letting out licensed properties.

The majority of landlords in the private rented sector provide decent accommodation with surveys showing that 84% of tenants are satisfied with their accommodation, and staying in their homes for an average of 3.5 years.