Mar

LATEST: Number of London landlords fined over past 12 months drops by a third Teaser

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Pressure group Generation Rent claims its research shows councils are struggling to identify rogue landlords and calls for government to give tenants greater powers to report unlicenced properties.

Landlord
prosecutions have fallen in the capital during the last 12 months, with 292
fines handed out compared with 433 in the previous year.

The Greater London Authority’s Rogue Landlord and Agent
Checker showed landlords paid fines totalling
£1.04 million in the year to 26^th February, down on the £1.66 million paid in 2018.

These fines were issued by 17 of the 32
London boroughs, with Camden the most prolific council for taking action
against criminal landlords, handing out more than £750,000 in fines.

During the past year, Newham, Brent, Tower Hamlets and
Waltham Forest saw fines fall by more than half, while Westminster, Hounslow
and Haringey have more than doubled theirs.

But pressure
group Generation Rent is not happy, calling on the next Mayor of London to step
up the fight against criminal landlords by letting tenants check online if
their home needs and has a licence.

It believes an
estimated 130,000 private rented homes in London don’t have the right licence
and says that in 130 of the 292 cases last year, tenants would have been
entitled to reclaim up to 12 months’ rent through a Rent Repayment Order
because their landlord had failed to either obtain a licence or make improvements
to the property.

Dan Wilson
Craw, director of Generation Rent, says: “Despite squalid conditions facing
many of London’s renters, councils have a very mixed record on bringing the
landlords responsible to justice.

“The next
Mayor of London could turn this around by making it easier for renters to use
Rent Repayment Orders against criminal landlords.”

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