London mayor Sadiq Khan has called on the government to double the amount that landlords can be asked to pay via a Rent Repayment Order and also announced additional funding for housing enforcement.
Khan wants Ministers to increase the amount that First Tier Tribunals can award tenants found to be living in unlicenced properties to a maximum of two years of rent each.
Because rents in London are high, fines for relatively minor trip-ups are often eye-watering in London.
In September last year a central London landlord was told to pay £25,000 back to his tenants after a procedural mistake.
Khan is also to fund a new qualification and training programme for the capital’s housing enforcement officers to encourage them to clamp down harder on criminal landlords and support vulnerable tenants.
The new course, an Advanced Professional Certificate in Private Sector Housing, aims to help councils find more appropriately-qualified staff, but the announcement makes no commitment to better fund housing enforcement in London – a key reason why so few rogue landlords are prosecuted or have RROs made against them.
The aim of the course, which is being developed in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, aims to train those with little or no experience in environmental health or private rental housing up to the standard needed to carry out the duties of a private rented sector enforcement officer to tackle rogue landlords – part of an overall ‘Better Renting Programme’ to build skills and capacity across the capital’s PRS enforcement teams.
“Every single Londoner deserves a secure, safe and comfortable home. Nearly a fifth of London’s private rented accommodation doesn’t meet basic standards and it is clear that more needs to be done to support tenants,” Khan says.
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