30 Oct 25
Rachel Reeves has committed a strict liability crime under section 95 of the Housing Act 2004 (failure to licence a property) with unlimited fines if prosecuted in court. Alternatively councils can issue a civil financial penalty up to £30,000 (and keep the money).
Councils treat this as one of the most heinous crimes possible and we see dozens of small landlords every week fined often between £12,000 to £20,000 for this exact same criminal offence.
Just like speeding, it is a strict liability crime and there is no defence of “I didn’t know” or my letting agent didn’t tell me. Councils are absolutely merciless in prosecuting small landlords because for them, fining landlords has become a major revenue stream.
Will Reeve’s apology get her off the hook. It certainly wouldn’t get any one else who rented out their former family home and didn’t licence it. Council’s see these landlords as low hanging fruit for their revenue.
And let’s be clear we see hundreds of examples each month where councils leave tenants in danger whilst they concentrate on getting their pound of flesh from the landlord. Note councils concentrate on small landlords not the real rogues because hey never actually get cash from the rogues!
The whole licensing and enforcement environment in private sector housing is toxic and corrupt. (“Dear Council: keep as much fine money as you can raise” was never going to lead to a fair system and has in fact become an effective land grab as councils take ever bigger slices of the equity of small landlords.)
Also councils go out of their way to persuade tenants to make a rent Repayment Order for 12-months rent back (shortly to be 24-months under the new Renters Reform Act.
Will the full merciless weight of the law with civil penalty fines and rent repayment orders bear down on our chancellor as it does on every other landlord who didn’t realise they needed a licence?
We wait with bated breath – and of course Landlord Licensing & Defence would be happy to defend Ms Reeves to the full extent the law allows!
(As we do for all ‘I didn’t know’ Landlords who get the wrong side of the insidious PRS enforcement fiasco via)
