Do You Know Of A Poor Property / Bad Landlord?
As a local landlord association, our primary aim is to educate and inform local landlords to help them ensure they meet all of the necessary regulations and offer homes that are safe and comfortable for those who live in them.
However, many of us occasionally come across properties that we would be ashamed to let if they were ours. If it were to belong to a fellow member, we would hope to be able to help them understand what they need to do - but typically it is not. What can you do about those landlords who have no regard for their tenants, spend no money on their properties and get us all a bad name and also, who would never consider joining a local or national association? We finally have an answer...
How Do They Get Away With It?
The simple answer is that these bad landlords rely on the fact that tenants almost never complain for fear of reprisals or eviction and the authorities are always too busy to proactively search out these properties - so most of the time, spending nothing, ignoring your tenants and maximising your income works well for these unscrupulous operators.
What Can You Do?
You have always had the option of reporting it to the appropriate council team - but due to their interpretation of GDPR you will never know if your report was filed or actioned, whether the property was ever inspected or any enforcement has resulted.
However, as an Association we have good links with various council departments in all of our local councils and in Portsmouth, we also have a seat on the Governance Board (which oversees private sector issues) along with councillors, the University, council staff and others.
Therefore if you know of a property which you believe should be licensed which is not, or one that is which does not meet the necessary standards or a property that had certain planning conditions applied which have not been met, or even one that you believe is evading Council Tax or Business Rates - then do let us know (Email us with details:
What Will We Do?
We have established a formal reporting process whereby we will notify appropriate departments at the relevant council of the suspected infringement and which we will use to follow up and ensure appropriate action is taken.
Why Are We Doing This?
Too often members complain that they feel victimised when their perfectly acceptable properties are picked up on seemingly trivial issues when other properties (like the flats in Windsor House in Canal Walk, Portsmouth which have been all over the news lately) appear to get away with criminal conditions for years on end.
So do please help us to help you, by helping to direct the scarce enforcement resources across our local councils to the areas where they are most needed.