LAs committed a summary offence, who do I report it to?

elvis86

The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 dictates that upon receipt of a written request, an agent must provide a tenant with the name and address of their landlord within 21 days. The act clarifies that failure to do so constitutes a summary offence which may be penalised by a fine.

I just ended a tenancy during which the agents repeatedly refused to provide this information, but I'm finding it difficult to find out who is responsible for enforcing the Act?

Shelter advised that this is the responsibility of local councils, but my local council doesn't want to know. Having initially said they have nobody with the time to investigate this, they have now suggested that it's a civil matter that I may have to take through the courts?!

I just want to report the fact that this LA is flouting the law, to prevent them doing this to anyone in the future (and to cause a bit of trouble for them as they're absolute !!!!!!!).

Is the Landlord and Tenants Act just a toothless bit of legislation which nobody bothers to enforce?

N79

Council would be the right place (you could also report to the police - but expect a similar reaction).

No doubt the Council would dispute that they ever said that they can't be arsed and instead claim that they have decided it is not in the public interest to prosecute..... - this may even be true as obviously it would cost a lot of money to launch a prosecution with no guarantee of success.

Now if their failure to carry out their duty has caused you a quantifiable loss, then you are perfectly within your rights to sue for damages.

Werdnal

Were the agents members of ARLA or similar? If so, usually they are the first port of call for any complaints.

princeofpounds

Toothless, no. But poor enforcement, I wouldn't be surprised.

You might get more of a reception from the council if you formally complain about the response and note that you will consider taking them to the local govt ombudsman.

http://www.lgo.org.uk/

princeofpounds

Might be worth posting the question on landlordzone forums too, they might know.

Edit: You should also speak to your councillors too, they will often give a department a kick up the behind.

propertyman

This ( Local Authority "non" enforcement of the 85 Act) was a question I lodged with the GLA on the service charge issues consultation.

Quelle suprise... no answer! As it will involve spending some money rather than another grand gesture....

The LA try and dodge this and as suggested take it up with the council through the formal complaints process.

Yes you can take a private action too

But via the court and the lgo, you will have to prove some form of loss or damage.

N79

princeofpounds wrote: »

Toothless, no. But poor enforcement, I wouldn't be surprised.

You might get more of a reception from the council if you formally complain about the response and note that you will consider taking them to the local govt ombudsman.

http://www.lgo.org.uk/

I suspect that all such a complaint will produce will be a short internal memo on why it is not in the public interest to proceed....

elvis86

Thanks for the responses.

I don't want any form of recompense, I would just like to see the LAs taken to task and shown that whilst they may be able to exploit people with rip-off "referencing" and "admin fees" etc, they're not able to opt-out of their legal obligations as and when it suits them!

I have had almost 4 years of trouble with them, I didn't pursue this issue during the tenancy for fear of them making life difficult for me. I dread to think what a tenant who is less eloquent and able to stand up for themselves would endure at their hands.

It just feels like there's lesgislation which is supposed to protect tenants, but LAs and landlords are free to ignore it without fear of anyone enforcing it!

elvis86

Werdnal wrote: »

Were the agents members of ARLA or similar? If so, usually they are the first port of call for any complaints.

They are a member of ARLA, but it seems that you must have exhausted the LA's internal complaints procedure prior to lodging a complaint with them?

N79

To be honest, this is the sort of offence which gets added to other offences when the council do go after someone for other (in their view) more serious offences.

Put simply, the costs of enforcing this are quite high and the council are dependent on your witness and records, which may well be nowhere near good enough for the criminal standard burden of proof thus making the outcome uncertain. Thus, given the council's don't have enough money to go after the bad LLs, they allow this sort of low level activity to go on - after all, in most cases the T is not quantifiable disadvantaged.

Is this right? That depends on your point of view. There are plenty of other laws that society on sporadically enforces.

elvis86

N79 wrote: »

To be honest, this is the sort of offence which gets added to other offences when the council do go after someone for other (in their view) more serious offences.

Put simply, the costs of enforcing this are quite high and the council are dependent on your witness and records, which may well be nowhere near good enough for the criminal standard burden of proof thus making the outcome uncertain. Thus, given the council's don't have enough money to go after the bad LLs, they allow this sort of low level activity to go on - after all, in most cases the T is not quantifiable disadvantaged.

I take your point, but surely the provisions were included in the act for a reason?

For an agent to effectively prevent a tenant from knowing who their rent is paid to affords the LA a degree of power that could be abused (eg invoicing tenants for repairs/furniture etc that they never actually carry out/purchase, as I suspect my LAs have done). Knowing that a tenant has the right to their landlord's contact details at least introduces some accountability on the LA's part, surely?

To be effectively be told that the council can't be bothered to look into it does lead one to question the value of the legislation?

N79 wrote: »

Is this right? That depends on your point of view. There are plenty of other laws that society on sporadically enforces.

Such as what?