No case to answer

Social tenants have security of tenure, the right of access to an ombudsman and, from April 2010, will all be regulated by the Tenant Services Authority (TSA).

But tenants in the private rented sector are treated differently. Most have no security. Some have access to the housing ombudsman because their landlords or managing agents have voluntarily joined my service but none has that right automatically by statute. There is no regulation comparable with that in the social sector. Many tenants fear retaliatory eviction.

Features of the private rented sector have been described as ‘barbaric’. The Law Commission identified instances in which the rented sector in England and Wales is a mess. These characteristics would be mitigated by tenants having the same right of access to the housing ombudsman as those in the social sector, provided they had the same sort of legal protection from retaliatory eviction as in, for example, Australia and New Zealand.