There have always been penalties for landlords who are shown to have not acted properly. The Renters Rights Act 2025 (RRA) brings in significant increases to these, with a view to driving out “rogue” landlords. Whilst the penalties have increased, the big changes are Councils now have a duty to take enforcement action.
As a result many Councils are recruiting enforcement officers, where previously most had none. As councils keep the fines, we can expect some councils to consider these roles ‘self funding’.
Whilst we hope these enforcement officers spend their time on the rogue landlords, inevitably all Owners risk their attention if they are not doing things properly!
The most likely way Councils will be notified of an issue is from a tenant who has a concern that they feel has not been adequately addressed by the Owner or their Agent.
Additionally the Council may be notified of an issue by any other source, or their own research e.g. they can do desk research to check which properties have a valid EPC. Once the PRS Database is established, this will be easier for them.
Councils have increased powers to investigate any issue, including:
Obviously once a property is visited they will go through an extensive checklist to identify any possible breach, even if it does not relate to the original issue.
They have wide scope covering most of the Laws affecting renting, plus many safety issues such as Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), EPC etc.
Typically they will not be involved in any eviction proceedings unless the eviction relates to an ongoing issue or is an illegal eviction.
Councils can issue improvement notices, prohibit specific actions, issue banning orders or issue financial penalties. These maybe civil penalties or, where any of the rent has been paid by benefits, a Rent Repayment Order.
A Civil Penalty notice of intent will explain the offence and the penalty as judged by the Council. Owners will usually have 28 days to respond to the notice of intent. Following a review of any response if a Penalty Notice is issued, Owners will have 28 days to pay or appeal to the First Tier Tribunal. (As with a parking ticket, but significantly more costly).
Civil penalties are up to £7,000 for housing legislation ‘breaches’ and £40,000 for housing legislation ‘offences’. The higher sums being for more serious or repeat offences.
Obviously there can be criminal prosecution for continuing or repeated serious breaches.
The issues covered by civil penalties include:
* Whilst failure to follow Awaabs Law is not yet a civil offence, it will be. Also the issues that may cause any future breach are largely covered by other housing issues in the list.
RROs are awarded by the First Tier Tribunal. They can be up to 2 years’ of rent, and the claim can be made up to 2 years after the offence. Offences covered include:
Essentially you have to repay the Council any of the rent paid by benefit for up to 2 years and, if the tenant applied, up to 2 years’ of the rent repaid directly to the tenant.
If a tenant has a concern they feel is not being adequately addressed by the Owner or their Agent they can:
Whilst the Ombudsmen may award some compensation, clearly if the Tenant raises a successful claim for a Rent Repayment Order, the Owner will need to repay the Tenant their rent for up to 2 years. This is clearly attractive to tenants.
There are now “ambulance chasing” companies actively encouraging such claims.
The chances of defending any issue will be greatly increased with clear and comprehensive records of all interaction and actions taken. You may have acted properly and done the right thing, but if you can’t prove it, you may not succeed.
Therefore our systems and training are designed to ensure clear records across our database, phone systems, text and email systems, plus the documents we send tenants and instructions we send contractors. We continuously strive to update these systems to be even more robust.
The key focus for us is to ensure you or your property does NOT come to the attention of the Council or First Tier Tribunal!
The way we achieve that is we aim to make decisions and take actions on your behalf to properly address any potential breaches or tenant concerns, as soon as possible. If the tenant is content things are being done properly, they are unlikely to make a report to the council and, if they do, we can show everything was done properly.
Other Fines and Penalty risks
In addition to the above, there are many fines and penalties which were unaffected by the RRA. These are detailed in our blogpost:
Very professional organisation that gives good service to both the tenants as well as the landlord. Highly recommended.
Roger Steel
Landlord
All staff at Maxine Lester Residential Lettings are trained to a high standard and I have always found Lisa Gadsby very efficien
Phil Green
Landlord
Every time we have contacted Maxine Lester everyone has been so helpful. We have always had any issues dealt with promptly and...
Jake Benstead
Tenant
Excellent service all round, keeping us informed regularly on our property, always contactable and willing to help with any query.
Paula Frame
Landlord
All telephone calls recorded for training and quality
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