Landlords square up for a scrap with Boris during the General Election campaign

Landlords square up for a scrap with Boris during the General Election campaign

The RLA says the regulations that letting agents and landlords must comply with have increased by a third since 2010 and has called for licensing schemes to be scrapped.

4th November 2019 0 32 Views

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has called for the mountain of red tape now faced by landlords and letting agents, including the growing number of licensing schemes, to be significantly reduced or scrapped.

These proposals are part of its manifesto for the looming General Election that Boris Johnson has triggered.

The RLA has based its claim on the increased number of regulations that landlords must comply with which has reached 156, up from 118 since the Conservatives began re-shaping the legal framework of the property industry.

Ahead of the expected policing of landlords highlighted by Lord Best’s RoPA proposals, the RLA says increased policing of the private rented sector has “not led to an improvement in enforcement action against criminal landlords and many councils are failing to properly use the powers they already have”.

Despite the RoPA proposals, the RLA has called on all political parties in the election to commit to improving enforcement of the powers already available.

This is instead of introducing new legislation which it says councils will be unable to use to ‘root out the crooks’.

“Removing criminal landlords from the sector will only be achieved if councils have the resources and the will to properly use the wide range of powers they already have,” says David Smith, the RLA’s Policy Director (left).

“Piling more regulations onto the sector which will continue not to be properly enforced is meaningless and serves only to put off good landlords from providing the homes to rent we need.

“It is time for smarter enforcement, not more regulation.”