New powers in housing enforcement

A raft of new regulations are coming into effect at the beginning of April
These new regulations will finally grant the power to ban rogue landlords and agents from renting property, and will also introduce a rogue landlord database, minimum energy efficiency standards for PRS and new homelessness duties for local authorities
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduced a package of measures to help local authorities crack down on rogue landlords and property agents. One of the measures was a new database for local housing authorities in England to keep track of rogue landlords and property agents, especially those operating outside of their local authority areas. The database will be restricted to users nominated by local authorities and all users will be able to view all entries on the database, including those made by other local housing authorities.
Local housing authorities will be required to enter the details of any person who has received a banning order. They are also strongly encouraged to make entries for a person who has:
- been convicted of a banning order offence that was committed at a time when the person was a residential landlord or property agent;
- and/or received two or more financial penalties as an alternative to prosecution for certain housing offences within a period of 12 months committed at a time when the person was a residential landlord or a property agent