Law comes down more heavily on landlords than it does on criminals

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Landlords & the
Law:

Writing for the Scotsman
newspaper, ex police officer Tom Wood explains how his “accidental landlord�
friend was meted out a harsher penalty than were a drug handler and a man who
assaulted a police officer.

The First Tier Housing and Property Tribunal for Scotland,
now responsible for rental housing matters in Scotland, handed out a £600 fine because
the amateur landlord friend overlooked the necessity to protect the tenant’s
deposit in one of the approved schemes on time.

In contrasted the police attacker was fined £500 and the
druggie £420 for possession.

Ex police offer Wood commented:

“Is this the balance of justice we want carried out in our
name, is it fair and proportionate that an administrative error be punished
more severely that crimes involving violence or drugs?

“But perhaps we also share responsibility, perhaps we should
pay more attention, look more closely at the standards of justice meted out by
our legal tribunals. In the meantime, the accidental landlords, the ones
without the legal back-up of big property companies, should beware.

“From my observation, the Housing and Property Tribunal is
heavy-handed, the scales of justice weighted against you.

“The application of the law is meant to be fair and proportionate
in all cases. What I witnessed was arguably fair within the letter of the law
but it was grotesquely disproportionate. We should pay more heed and not be taken
in by their friendly grin,� Mr Wood says.

Even though the landlord openly admitted the transgression, and
had registered as a landlord as the law dictates in Scotland, he knew he had
failed to lodge his tenant’s rental deposit in an approved scheme within the
statutory time limit of 30 days allowed.

This of course as experienced landlords would know was contrary
to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011. Mr Wood explained it
had been an oversight by a new landlord, a mistake that had been quickly
rectified, and with no loss to the tenant, but seemingly as far as the tribunal
was concerned, a more serious transgression than the other criminal offences.

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