"This needs to be addressed before Section 21 repossessions are ended"
Police and local authorities are failing to take effective action to tackle anti-social behaviour among tenants, an organisation of private residential landlords has said.
The statement was issued by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) as the results of its research revealed that of those private landlords who have served a repossession notice at some point, half have done so because of a tenant’s anti-social or criminal behaviour.
The data also showed that of this group, 84% have not received any assistance in tackling such behaviour from their local authority, while 75% did not have any help from the police.
The NRLA’s survey of 3,200 landlords also found that 67% had either always, or sometimes, faced problems gathering evidence or support from neighbours or fellow tenants to address the anti-social behaviour of tenants.
The landlord group said that many tenants, especially those in a house of multiple occupancy, were afraid to speak up about other tenants acting aggressively, or drinking, or on drugs, for fear of retaliation.
“My tenants have been assaulted by my other tenants, and we can’t ask them to leave without evidence,” one landlord told the NRLA. “Evidence takes time, and in our experience, all the other tenants moved out, and we lost money waiting for the bad one to leave.”
According to polling for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, of those who experienced anti-social behaviour in the last year, just 26% reported it to the police or local authorities, of which fewer than half (41%) were satisfied with the response they received.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said that while most tenants and landlords have a good relationship, the few renters committing anti-social behaviour cause misery for their fellow tenants and to the communities too.
“The police and councils are failing to provide the support landlords desperately need to take swift and effective action against nightmare tenants,” Beadle stressed. “This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency before Section 21 repossessions are ended.”
The NRLA believes that efforts to tackle anti-social behaviour will be made harder when Section 21 repossessions are scrapped in the private rented sector. Under the Government’s plans, where tenants cause misery for fellow tenants and neighbours, landlords will only be able to repossess a property where the police or local authority have taken action against them.
The landlords are calling for a number of measures to ensure effective action against unruly tenants, including:
- Implementing in full the recommendations of the Victims Commissioner’s 2019 report on anti-social behaviour.
- Anti-social behaviour hearings should be prioritised by the courts with possession orders enforced swiftly thereafter.
- Where the police or local authorities take action in response to a tenant’s anti-social behaviour, it should be a legal requirement to inform the landlord.
The NRLA said the government has agreed to its calls for a roundtable meeting to discuss how to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour in rented housing.
