Local authorities are applying double standards to rental rules by regularly fining private landlords while failing to address the same poor conditions in their own rental stock, a damning new report from the Housing Ombudsman has claimed.

The report ‘Learning from severe maladministration’ names 11 housing providers that are guilty of severe failings, including five councils (Brent, Hackney, Harlow, Lambeth and North Tyneside), as well as a number of housing associations.

The same local authorities that currently enforce housing standards against private landlords will themselves be accountable to their tenants.”

“From October, Awaab’s Law will apply to emergency repairs as well as damp and mould,” says Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman (main image).

“The same local authorities that currently enforce housing standards against private landlords will themselves be accountable to their tenants, who will be able to take them to court.”

The report features a series of rental rules abuses by councils, including Hackney Council, which failed to provide heating to a resident with breathing difficulties throughout winter, yet recently fined a private landlord £285,000 for ‘Cramming people into homes that don’t meet decent living standards.’

Meanwhile, the same Lambeth Council that failed to take action following a mould complaint in one of its rental properties, also fined a private landlord £10,000 for ‘failing to provide safe and secure accommodation’.

House of horrors

Brent Council fined a landlord £50,000 for running a ‘house of horrors,’ but left five children in one of its own council homes with a collapsed ceiling for six weeks during winter.

The report also highlights some of the more common tactics used by councils to avoid making repairs on their properties, including falsely claiming ‘no access’ despite minimal evidence of any kind of notification being made beforehand – practices that would trigger immediate enforcement action if done by private landlords.

The Government’s implementation of Awaab’s Law will first apply to social housing, beginning in October 2025. After a transition period, it is likely private landlords will face similar rules as part of the Renters’ Rights Bill and the Decent Homes Standard.

The legislation is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died from exposure to mould in 2020.