Dealing with Local Authority Enforcement – Section 1.1

General Introduction

The Problem

It is well known that although there are many good landlords in the Private Rented Sector, there are also many bad, rogue or even criminal landlords.

There is legislation available to deal with poor practice but the problem for many years has been that this legislation has not been enforced.

The reason for this is that the enforcing organisation is, in most cases, the Local Authority.  For the most part, they have in the past failed to do anything as

• Their funding had decreased, mostly due to austerity
• They no longer had the staff to do this work, and
• There was no legal obligation on them to do any enforcement work,

As a result, most Local Authorities (with a few honourable exceptions) took the decision not to do it.

Which meant that the rogues and the criminals were able to operate unchecked.

Dealing with the problem

This is a situation which the incoming Starmer government were determined to change.  They are looking to deal with it in two ways:

1. By section 107 of the Renters Rights Act 2025

This says:

This section came into force on 1 May 2026.

So, since that date, Local Authorities have had a legal obligation to enforce the law.  If they fail to do so, they will undoubtedly face Judicial Review actions, for example, from tenants’ organisations.

2. By ‘polluters pay’ procedures 

The Renters Rights Act builds on the ‘polluter pays’ Civil Penalty Notices, originally introduced in the Housing and Planning Act 2016, with more breaches and offences, and higher fees.

In addition, Rent Repayment Order offences have been increased, and the maximum award has been increased to two years’ worth of rent.  Local Authorities can apply for a rent repayment order if the rent has been paid by any kind of benefit.

Local Authorities can keep the fines and awards (rather than pass them on to the Treasury) so long as the money is used for their enforcement work.  

This all means that failing to comply with regulations, both old and new, will become extremely expensive for landlords.  The only 100% protection is 100% compliance.

However, although many landlords are very upset about this increase in enforcement work, it is actually, long term, good for the good landlords.

Why Local Authority Enforcement is good for good landlords

Rogue and criminal landlords are a blight on society.  They are also very bad for all the good landlords:

• They give good landlords a bad name.  Already, ‘landlord’ is considered such a bad term that many landlords want to be called something else.
• They create an uneven playing field.  For example, good landlords have to pay for regular maintenance, gas and electricity inspections and certification, and insurance, and some also have to pay licensing fees and membership organisations.  Rogue and criminal landlords pay for none of these.

So, Local Authority enforcement activity aimed at getting rid of the rogues and criminals will benefit good landlords.  

Just so long as you don’t breach any of the rules and so end up being vulnerable to enforcement yourself!

In the rest of this kit

We will explain

• Local Authorities investigatory powers
• The procedure they have to follow to issue a Civil Penalty Notice
• The various regulations, the breach of which can incur one of these fines, and
• An explanation of the Rent Repayment Order process.

We look at Rent Repayment Orders last, as Local Authorities will normally defer applying for a Rent Repayment Order until after the Civil Penalty Process has completed, as then they will be entitled to a higher award.