Local Authority Fines: Easier to Issue – But Now Much Harder to Avoid

One of the scandals in the private rented sector is the lack of enforcement action by Local Authorities against rogue landlords and letting agents.

This is not entirely the Local Authorities’ fault.

Many are extremely short of funds, partly due to reductions in their funding under Austerity and the increased costs they are having to bear, such as housing the homeless in priority need.

Although there are some honourable exceptions!

However, there is no doubt that this has been a real problem, and it is probably one reason why we have so many rogue and criminal landlords.

In many areas, there is no enforcement action at all, and the rogues are allowed to continue their criminal behaviour with impunity.

However, this is all about to change.

Why Local Authority enforcement is now likely to increase

• The Renters Rights Act 2025 makes it a statutory duty for Local Authorities to enforce the landlord legislation in their area.

• Fines have been increased massively, as have rent repayment awards,

• New rules will make superior landlords and company officials personally liable, thus making it difficult for the real culprits to evade punishment, and

• Local Authorities will be able to keep the additional fine income to fund their enforcement action.

But what about collecting the fines and awards?

The other problem, of course, is that many landlords and agents, particularly the criminal ones, just ignore the fines and refuse to pay them.

Local Authorities have not been very good at enforcing payment.

It’s hard to find reliable figures. But research cited by the National Residential Landlords Association indicates that between 2021 and 2023 of £13 million in civil penalties were issued.  However, only £6 million was collected.

That’s some 54% unpaid!

All bearing out the fact that getting the fine or award is the easy part.  The hard part for Local Authorities is getting paid!

However, this is about to change

Enter JFT Legal Limited.

JFT Legal Limited is a new law firm set up by Justice for Tenants to resolve this massive problem.

Most people will know about Justice for Tenants from the work they do, assisting tenants obtain Rent Repayment Orders.

However, they also do a huge amount of work for Local Authorities (discussed here). One of their initiatives is a new law firm dedicated to enforcing judgment debts, fines and awards for Local Authorities.

The firm now has SRA approval and is already starting work.  Although the website will not be ready until June.

The firm has £500,000 of 3rd sector funding, so Local Authorities will not have to pay up front.  The fees are also being kept low and can be paid from funds received from enforcement action.

Local Authorities using Justice for Tenants’ existing civil penalty notice generator software can refer cases to JFT easily from within the same software.  So I suspect it will be a much-used service.

What this means for landlords

For good landlords, this is excellent news.  Rogue and criminal landlords are bad news all round and taint the entire sector.

It’s unfair to all the good landlords who follow the rules to see rogues and criminals ‘getting away with it’.

It also means that it is riskier to challenge civil penalty notices and/or appeal to put things off.

This will just run up your costs, and in the end, if the Local Authority uses JFT, the final bill to pay will be higher.

Many Local Authorities, when issuing a Civil Penalty Notice, will offer landlords a discount for prompt payment.

Unless there is something obviously wrong with the notice served on you, you will normally be better off ‘biting the bullet’ and taking advantage of the discount.

It will get the problem off your desk, and you will also end up paying less than you would have done had you pursued an appeal.

Note – Landlord Law members will find extensive details of and guidance on Local Authority enforcement action in our Dealing with Local Authority Enforcement Kit.