I do try to be civil and fair and balanced. After all, this is a customer facing role but this month, sorry - I just need to get this off my chest...
Licensing Enforcement
The justification for all the new licencing legislation we are suffering is to "protect tenants from harm" yet PCC will trumpet the recent
prosecution of a rent-to-rent agent as a victory for protecting tenants.
What actual harm to tenants are these guys being punished for? Has this stopped people from living in unsanitary conditions, or with dangerous electrical installations or from being ripped-off by the landlord etc? Or is this just a paperwork compliance crime? Not the same thing.
I'm not saying that these guys have done no wrong, but we should not confuse failing to have the right paperwork with actual harm to tenants. Especially if that paperwork has been dreamed-up more for political reasons than to address actual problems. It would be much more convincing if they had been prosecuted under the Homes (Fit for Human Habitation) Act, for example. I know they are accused of overcrowding, but that's not quite the same thing and quite likely this was caused by the tenant's actions and not the landlord's anyway.
The more these kinds of prosecutions take place, the more "evidence" will be generated of tenants suffering harm at the hands of wicked landlords, justifying the need for yet further legislation. This is misuse of powers.
We need to remind people to focus on what (if any) actual harm, caused by landlords, to tenants, has been prevented - something that we can all agree on.