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Boost council backing for victim landlords
Published 19 October 2023
Rob Turner on the ongoing balance between punishing ‘buy-to-rot’ landlords, and helping those in difficulty
Over the years, as an environmental health officer specialising in private sector housing, I’ve often had to deal with the souring of relationships between landlords and tenants – and their bitter consequences.
It can be hard to work out where the true balance of power lies. Are bad landlords as numerous as we sometimes believe – and what about bad tenants?
For the fact is that many communities have them. They are certainly not exclusive to the private rented sector, but many seem destined to end up in a private sector tenancy at the bottom of the market.
I have come across many examples of poor practice from private sector landlords – from the ‘buy to rot’ landlords whose properties offer unacceptable housing conditions, to allegations of illegal action, such as a landlord pouring petrol through the letterbox to gain possession of a property when the tenant was in arrears. Thankfully, such cases are a minority.
I sympathise with landlords who sometimes find themselves with a tenant whose negative behaviour impacts on their neighbours. When a person’s life begins to spiral out of control because of mental health, alcohol or drug dependency issues it can become a living hell for neighbours. A private landlord often faces the unenviable task of sorting out such problems.
I often encounter landlords who only have three or four properties, who rent them out for a supplementary income to a ‘main’ job. These people work hard for a living and having to resolve those kinds of difficult problems is overwhelming.
For many, eviction is the only action available and after a lengthy legal process they get often their properties in a poor condition and with substantial rent arrears.
Evictions only displace problem tenants into other properties, often in close proximity to their previous residence. I am unsympathetic to landlords who don’t bother to properly reference prospective tenants, but less scrupulous landlord will sometimes provide a reference for a problem tenant in order to ‘move them on’.
Local authorities should take a hard line with ‘buy to rot’ landlords, but they should also seriously consider how good they are at helping the landlord in times of tenant trouble. We need to support private sector landlords so they can continue to offer accommodation for those we seek to help.
Rob Turner is housing market support manager at Salford city council.
