The Government has committed to giving access to information on the database of rogue landlords and property agents to tenants and has consulted on widening the scope for entries on the database.
Under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, a local housing authority must make an entry on the database where a landlord or property agent has received a Banning Order. Only local housing authorities have access to the database. The database is not open to letting agents, landlords, tenants or the general public.
Local housing authorities have the discretion to make entries where a landlord or property agent has been convicted of a Banning Order offence or has received two or more civil penalties within a 12-month period.
Following pressure from ARLA Propertymark, in October 2018, Prime Minister Theresa May announced the Government’s intention to make the Database available to view for tenants and prospective tenants.
More recently, ARLA Propertymark made representation to the Government in September 2019 outlining the reasons for widening the access of the Rogue Landlord Database.
What are we calling for?
We believe that the database should be available to the public to ensure landlords and tenants know if they are using a banned agent. It will also allow agencies to check the database to vet potential employees.
We also believe that access to the list should be granted to industry bodies such as ARLA Propertymark.
There is a need for joined-up thinking
Many letting agents are also sales agents and therefore regulated under the Estate Agents Act 1979. Consequently, we believe that being banned under the Estate Agents Act 1979 should also constitute a Banning Order offence under the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
Without combining the lists, there is a very real danger that a banned sales agent could set up as a letting agent or vice versa which will do little to improve the standards or perception of the industry.
The Queen’s Speech also contained a Renters’ Rights Bill that will introduce a package of measures which include introducing a new lifetime deposit and abolishing the use of ‘no-fault’ evictions by removing Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 and reforming the grounds for possession.
