Landlord & Buy-to-Let Magazine | Page 3
06
26
Majority of
tenants ignore
tenancy clauses
Immigration plans encourage landlords
to discriminate against lawful tenants
Penalty points
Rogue landlords could soon face
custodial sentences for putting
tenants’ lives at risk. Proposals put
forward by the Local Government
Association (LGA) include custodial
sentences, increased fines for
rogue landlords and a blacklist of
persistent offenders.
According to the LGA, who represent
370 councils in England and Wales,
fines currently issued to landlords have
the same effect as fining a Premiership
footballer £1,000 for speeding.
The footballer comparison is headline
grabbing, but it rather misses the
point that speeding fines are almost
always issued with penalty points.
One too many penalty points and
even a Premier footballer with the best
loophole lawyer in the land may have
to hang up the keys to the Range Rover
if they repeat offend.
Currently, criminal landlords know
there is little to stop them. Rogue
landlords make tenants’ lives a misery;
their business model, if you can call
it that, is to get away with as little
investment of time and money as
possible, for the most gain.
Yet unlike other criminals, they are
not hiding in the shadows; they receive
housing benefit income from their
tenants, their interests in the properties
are registered at Land Registry, they
Published by:
Issue 61 September 2015
ISSN 1753-2744
Wealth Media LLP
t/a PropertyNet.media
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www.landlordnet.co.uk
IN THIS ISSUE ...
2–26
Industry news including:
• R ent rises retreat but UK
average year-on-year rise
maintains double figures
• A ssociation reaches
20,000 members
• Tenants believe landlords
are fair and helpful – but
could improve on safety
advertise for tenants openly and file
tax returns.
The NLA is calling for a crosscutting multi-disciplinary task force
with the power and resources to
make a difference. They have a point.
Currently, councils focus on the
property rather than the offender.
A cross-cutting approach with
investigatory power could look at
all the offender’s activities instead of
the property by property approach.
Criminal landlords should live in fear
of the dawn raid, prosecution, the
prison sentence and the confiscation
of assets obtained through the
proceeds of their crimes – just like
any other career criminal.
• Ealing ‘beds in sheds’
demolished
14 Cardiff Landlord
& Letting Show 2015
28
Opinion Counts –
Richard Lambert
Tougher sanctions for criminal
landlords…yes please!
30
Ask Tom –
Council licensing fee concerns
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Oliver Romain,
Editor
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Landlord & Buy-to-Let Issue 61 • September 2015 1