Isle of Wight votes to bring in £30,000 fines for rogue landlords

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Isle of Wight landlords face a crackdown after the council agreed to bring in tough new civil penalties, LandlordZONE can reveal.

The council is the latest to introduce fines of up to £30,000 which will be used where landlords fail to comply with improvement notices, offences in relation to HMO licensing and contravening an overcrowding notice.

The council says it will choose how to prosecute those involved, either by enforcing a civil penalty or through the magistrates’ court, on a case-by-case basis.

According to Island Echo, when reviewing one case the council had recently dealt with concerning a landlord who’d failed to fix nine hazards in a home where three children lived, housing enforcement officers determined that reasonable civil penalties would have been about £10,000.

The island has a rented sector of nearly 17,000 households. The council reports that money made from civil penalties would create a sizeable income for housing enforcement purposes, with the potential to add more resources to regulate housing standards.

A council report states: “We aim to support good landlords who provide decent homes and avoid unnecessary regulation which increases costs and red tape for landlords and also pushes up rents for tenants.

“However, a small number of rogue landlords knowingly rent out unsafe and substandard accommodation. We are determined to crack down on these landlords and disrupt their business model.”

Read more about the Isle of Wight.

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