Banning orders to stop rogue landlords

Under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, banning orders are set to be introduced from October 2017 in relation to residential lettings.

Section 14 of the Act introduces a power to serve a banning order preventing a landlord or property agent from letting properties in England.

Where someone has been convicted of a banning order offence, the local authority can then apply through the First-Tier Tribunal for a Banning Order.

There are a range of Banning Order offences that have been proposed, some of which include; illegally evicting or harassing tenants, failure to comply with improvement notices regarding properties, gas safety offences or letting to someone who is disqualified from renting because of their immigration status.

If a landlord or property agent is subject to a banning order, their name would also be included in a national database of rogue landlords and property agents. The national database of rogue landlords will be centrally controlled, with each local authority able to update the database and identify rogue landlords who may be based in other areas but also operating across authority boundaries.

More information is available from this government website and this National Landlords Association document.