Criminal landlords and letting agents in London who exploit tenants are to be ‘named and shamed’ on a new online database in a bid to give protection to the capital’s private renters. Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that London Boroughs will work in partnership to build the database, which will be published on the Mayor’s website when it is launched in the autumn. He believes that allowing renters to check a prospective landlord or lettings agent will give people more confidence in renting and act as a deterrent to the minority of landlords and agents who behave dishonestly. The database will allow London’s local authorities to share information on a landlords’ criminal history and provide details of enforcement activity and investigations. It will be developed in the coming months with information from six councils – Newham, Brent, Camden, Southwark, Kingston and Sutton – with other boroughs across London. The Mayor made the announcement as he joined a criminal landlord enforcement raid in Newham, carried out under the council’s borough-wide licensing scheme for private rented properties. In 2013, Newham Council was the first local authority to be granted borough-wide licensing and has been very successful in tackling criminal landlords, prosecuting 1,100 criminal landlords and banning 28 of the very worst from operating. Mr Khan, said: “I refuse to stand by as thousands of Londoners suffer sky-high rents and horrendous living conditions in a city they call home.
“Today I have seen first-hand the abysmal conditions that some of London’s private renters are forced to endure as a result of rogue landlords. “To help renters, I will be working in partnership with London Boroughs to launch my new ‘name and shame’ database of criminal landlords and letting agents to help Londoners before they rent a property.”
