Rogue landlords receive £5.6bn a year from unsafe homes

[ALEO Admin]

A report published by Citizens Advice has claimed that "Rogue landlords are receiving £5.6 billion a year for unsafe homes" with 1.3bn of this paid from housing benefit.

Titled A Nation of Renters: How England moved from secure family homes towards rundown rentals, the report is based on the results of the English Housing Survey and was produced with Citizens Advice by UK think tank the New Policy Institute.

The report analysis the physical state of private rental properties in England and finds that "one in six privately rented homes in England (16 per cent) are physically unsafe" and that these homes "have Category 1 hazards, which can include severe damp [8%], excessive cold [6%], rodent infestation and risk of falls".

The report states that:

"private rented homes are also almost twice as likely [compared to other tenures] to have severe problems with damp. While this is not a requirement of the decency standard, severe damp encourages the growth of mould and mites and increases the risk of respiratory illnesses. Nearly one in ten privately rented homes (8 per cent) have a damp problem compared to 5 per cent of social rented and 3 per cent of owner-occupied homes. Serious condensation or mould are the most common type of damp across all tenures while penetrating damp and rising damp are relatively more common in private rented homes."

The recommendations of the report include:

- Tenants should be entitled to rent refunds where properties are dangerous or not fit to live in
- A national landlord register should be set up to help ensure landlords operating illegally cannot move to different areas to avoid legal action
- Councils should also set up local licensing to tackle specific issues in their private rental markets

Private landlord groups have criticised the report, however, with The National Landlords Association (NLA) saying that:

“We recognise that bad practice exists in private housing, that it can have a devastating effect on those it affects, and that it needs to be stamped out. But this report uses loose definitions to compound a perception that private housing is insecure and unsuitable across the board, and it ignores the weight of evidence to the contrary.

To download the full report, visit:
http://npi.org.uk/publications/housing- ... s-towards/

For a report from the BBC , visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32815226

For more details of the NLA's response, visit:
http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2015 ... -to-health