There have always been bad landlords, just as there are bad operators in every industry, and nobody is suggesting councils shouldn’t act when tenants are being put at risk.
But something else appears to be happening in the Private Rented Sector.
New research from the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) suggests hostility towards landlords is becoming an increasingly important reason why some are questioning their future in the sector.
Negative portrayals of landlords by politicians, campaigners and the media have risen from the eighth to the fourth most-mentioned issue affecting landlord confidence, while comments about landlords’ treatment and public portrayal have doubled as a proportion of responses since early 2025.
Look at a few recent stories and perhaps it isn’t difficult to understand why.
When Does A Landlord’s Responsibility End?
A landlord was recently fined as part of a £42,500 prosecution involving several properties, with one home occupied by three adults reportedly containing accumulated waste, urine, faeces and dead rodents in a clear case of hoarding.
The council accused the landlord of “allowing” people to live in those conditions despite the NHS recognising hoarding as a mental health condition.
This week Lewisham Council announced an ‘intelligence-led Rogue Landlords Taskforce’ to actively identify landlords suspected of breaking housing rules, saying “tenants should not have to live in ‘mouldy, rat-infested or downright dangerous’ homes because landlords have failed in their responsibilities.
That feels like quite an assumption. Or an admission of bias?
Surely, their objective should be “prevent tenants living in mouldy, rat infested or downright dangerous homes” by investigating the cause then deciding who is to blame? Or, as in the case of the hoarding, find the correct organisation for a person with mental health issues to get the help they obviously need.
Otherwise, it’s not unreasonable to question whether councils are only interested in helping people if it involves fining landlords?
Sometimes the landlord unquestionably will be responsible. But rats can also be attracted by rubbish, food waste and conditions created inside or around a home and a landlord cannot stop a hoarder hoarding. That’s the job of health professionals.
Likewise, landlords can face on-the-spot fines of up to £7,000 for serious damp and mould.
What part of ‘on the spot’ investigates the cause?
No wonder so many landlords report feeling persecuted, it feels increasingly like innocent until proved guilty doesn’t apply to landlords. Instead, the current trend seems to be more in keeping with ‘guilty by default unless you can prove otherwise’.
A Growing Trend
Lewisham says it has already issued 153 enforcement notices this financial year and collected £160,875 in fines since April, with enforcement expected to increase following the launch of the taskforce.
And Lewisham isn’t alone in stepping up enforcement.
Bristol City Council has consulted on tougher financial penalties under the Renters’ Rights Act, including proposals for penalties to be increased by 20% where breaches affect vulnerable tenants.
Meanwhile, the Government has told councils to make greater use of their enforcement powers, and local authorities now have substantially larger penalties available to them under the Renters’ Rights Act.
So, an obvious question follows: How many more councils will follow?
From Regulating Landlords To Looking For Them
None of this means responsible landlords should be protected from scrutiny.
But there is an important difference between investigating a landlord because there is evidence of wrongdoing and actively searching the sector for people who might be doing something wrong.
When enforcement becomes proactive rather than reactive, it is easy to see why some landlords feel the line between regulating and investigating has crossed into hunting.
For someone who has spent years maintaining properties, responding to repairs, paying tax and providing homes, being repeatedly addressed as part of a sector requiring “crackdowns”, “taskforces” and tougher penalties can understandably feel hostile.
Sometimes Paying For Certainty Makes Better Financial Sense
Lewisham Council put it rather neatly itself: “Getting fined up to £40,000 is not a good way to save money.”
For landlords who still enjoy the business and want to remain in the sector, the answer is good management, meticulous compliance and keeping on top of the changing rules.
But for those who have already decided they’ve had enough, that £40,000 comment raises another interesting point.
Saving money isn’t always about choosing the option with the lowest apparent cost.
The same applies when selling.
Holding out for the highest possible property price can look like the obvious way to protect your equity. But the headline sale price isn’t the amount that eventually reaches your bank account.
Mortgage payments, maintenance, insurance, compliance, tax, agency fees, legal costs and months of continuing exposure to the responsibilities of being a landlord all need to be taken into account.
Sometimes using a little more of your equity to secure a faster, more reliable exit can leave you better off overall.
At Landlord Sales Agency, we specialise in finding the right exit for rental properties rather than simply putting them on the market and hoping for the best.
That could mean selling with the tenant remaining in situ, helping the tenant buy their home, negotiating a voluntary surrender if they want to leave, or finding an investor from our database of more than 30,000 buyers.
We deal with tenants throughout the process, solve problems that might otherwise derail a sale and work to keep everyone pulling in the same direction.
There are no seller agency fees or commission, and if we can’t achieve a price you’re happy with, you don’t have to sell.
Most importantly, look at the net figure and the risk attached to achieving it, rather than simply comparing headline valuations.
Lewisham Council says: “Getting fined £40,000 isn’t a good way to save money.”
Neither is spending months carrying costs and risks to save a few thousand pounds on the price of your exit.
If you’ve decided you’ve had enough, talk to Landlord Sales Agency about how much you could walk away with – and how quickly you could put being a landlord behind you.