Registration of Private Landlords consultation response

Landlords and tenants alike have been encouraged to believe that Landlord Registration will raise standards, particularly standards of management, in private renting. We are disappointed that almost three years after the introduction of registration, landlords and tenants have had little reassurance that local authorities will act where mismanagement of tenancies is brought to their attention. Shelter has not seen evidence that registration is having any impact on standards.

The focus so far has been on getting people on the register, rather than enforcement of standards through the fit and proper person test. Local authorities have a role to play in delivering a better quality sector for tenants, but we see many examples where local authorities and their partners aren’t acting to protect tenants or send a clear message to rogue landlords. The Good Practice Report produced for the Scottish Government by Arneil Johnston supports our assessment. They identify that “this is an area that is under-developed across all authorities interviewed.”

We believe that the Scottish Government should be looking more closely at where disputes occur between landlords and tenants, and talking to local authorities about whether landlord registration is the best means of dealing with them. Otherwise, we are in danger of sending out a message that local authorities can police the sector when they may not have the capacity or power to do so. If this happens, we risk undermining confidence in registration as a whole and losing the cooperation of landlords and tenants alike.