Banning orders approved to crack down on rogue landlords in Rotherham
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
A report, which was agreed at yesterday’s (April 25) cabinet meeting states: “Landlords could be banned from renting out residential properties if found guilty of offences including unlawful eviction, harassment, overcrowding, and fire or gas safety offences.”
Breaching a banning order could see the individual handed a custodial sentence of up to 51 weeks, an unlimited fine or both.
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Hide AdThe individual would also be banned from engaging in letting agency or property management work.
Councillor Amy Brookes, cabinet member for housing told the meeting: “It enables the council to take action on unscrupulous and rogue landlords, who have been convicted of certain offences… and it can ban them from managing or renting a property for minimum of 12 months.
“It’s a very severe sanction to improve the private rented sector.
“We know that poor management in the private sector really impacts upon tenants, health and safety, so this is a very welcome tool in our arsenal.”
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Hide AdCouncillor Chris Read, leader of the council added: “This moves us from a situation which we have had, certainly, where we’ve taken individual properties out of use as rental properties for a period of time because of problems associated with them, to a situation where we’re stopping landlords from being able to operate as landlords full stop in those areas.”
The report adds that the council has seen: “An increase in unregulated and /or unaccredited agents and landlords advertising rented properties through social media, without any appropriate letting background.”