RLA Praises Cross Party PRS Report

Although MPs and lettings industry experts have not been seeing eye-to-eye on many issues in recent months, the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has largely backed the recommendations made by the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Private Rented Sector, for which the RLA serves as secretariat.

The group’s membership of over 60 MPs has called for civil penalties and banning orders that would prevent criminal landlords from doing business, a measure the RLA supports. They also back their call for a clearer definition of what exactly is meant by a “fit and proper” person to let properties.

They also say powers need to exist that allow letting agents that are found to be behaving inappropriately or abusing their position to be banned from operating in the lettings sector, similar to the controls that exist for estate agents.

Although the RLA praises the report as a whole for resisting “headline grabbing hysteria,” they didn’t agree with everything it contained. The group suggested annual electrical safety checks in private rented homes, but the RLA claims there is not enough evidence to suggest that such measures would achieve a notable improvement to safety.

All-in-all, though, it is pleasing to see a more constructive debate brewing between the lettings sector and MPs than has been the case recently.

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