Civil Penalties for housing offences
The Housing & Planning Act 2016 introduced a range of measures to crack down on rogue landlords including civil penalties, a database of rogue landlords and property agents, extension to rent repayment orders and banning orders.
Civil penalties were introduced in April 2017 giving local authorities the ability to impose civil penalties for certain Housing Act offences. These could include financial penalties of up to £30,000 for failing to comply with an improvement notice, offences in relation to licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), failure to comply with management regulations for an HMO and contravention of an overcrowding notice. Previously these offences had to be dealt with by the courts.
Councils now have the opportunity to use the new powers which will allow swifter action to tackle rogue landlords without the need to take them to court which can be time consuming and costly. Repeat offenders could end up on a national database of rogue landlords and property agents.
Councils will still be able to take landlords to court in the most serious cases.
Most councils in Lincolnshire are either in the process of approving or have already introduced their civil penalty policy. For more information, please see your local councils website.
