Read new Safer Renting report: second, updated annual count of illegal eviction and harassment cases in England and Wales.

Should CPNs be used for harassment and illegal eviction?

Looking back on our achievements after 7 years of Safer Renting and looking forward to 2023 and future projects.

HOw do you make the police protect tenants?

Why justice so often fails tenants

Watching out for s21 through the back door

Watching out for s21 through the back door

Watching out for s21 through the back door

A mst read for anyone working in housing

Supreme Courts gives green light for appeal on important Rent Repayment Order case

Where will the coming financial storm leave landlords and tenants?

Lodgers have no power or protection

decriminalising harassment and illegal eviction

What tenants can do when they pay rent inclusive of bills

A real life tale of dealing with the law and rogue landlords

magistrates make a mockery of housing enforcement

Enforcement officers need to be given the green light to pursue penalties

Consolidating housing legislation can help streamline procedures and even help tenant’s better understand what’s going on

Latest court of appeal case a disaster for the future of Rent Repayment Orders

Can housing law really help renters or is it just academic?

What is a week in the Safer Renting office like?

The different reasons that landlords harass and illegally evict

If renters dont always feel inclined to join a union, could the council provide a similar space?

The immorality of no fault eviction

The one power of renters equivalent to s21 would be their ability to withold their rent

Why should police be exempt legal action in illegal evictions?

Why are so few landlords on the national database?

Is a tenant’s rights to withold rent the key to rebalancing power?

Is a tenant’s rights to withold rent the key to rebalancing power?

The perils and pitfalls of negotiating with a landlord

Latest book from the LAG stable and a very important one for anyone in the housing advice and advocacy game

AreT ROs too cautious about the use of force in illegal evictions, to re-secure the accommodation?

Are landlords part of the problem or part of the solution?

The compromises you have to accept just to protect tenants from rogue landlords

Can a landlord just let themselves in after 24 hours written notie?

Examining the shady world where landlords and agents refuse to provide tenancy contracts or rent receipts.

Where do you sit in the war between landlords and tenants?

Looking back over 2020 and forward to 2021

The rogue and criminal property companies being welcomed by councils and charities to provide accommodation for the homeless.

43 years in, its time to re-examine the PFEA to still if it still works or can be improved

What illegal eviction means. A real human story

Housing enforcement – how effective are you?

The reality of what happens when a criminal landlord or agent illegally evicts and steals possessions

HOw to close down loopholes and disincentive-ise criminal landlords and agents

What is it really like to apply for an RRO?

The latest trend employed to drive renters from their homes

What happens when landlord greed and failures in legal aid meet

Will renters rights be nest served by being human rights instead of consumer ones?

Where will the coming 6 months take the PRS?

Another of Safer Renting’s 13 recommendations to give enforcement officers proper, workable tools to tackle the shadow private rented sector

The weird world of being a TRO and how Safer Renting is keeping the flag flying

Peering into a very murky crystal ball

The real story of how illegal evictions get dealt with

Another recommendation from Safer Renting to protect tenants from criminal landlords and agents

Quite honestly the most astonishing piece of landlord arrogance I have read sine lockdown began

One of Safer Renting’s recommendations to tackle abuses in the Shadow Private Rented sector.

Expecting rogue landlords to reasonable is no basis for protecting tenants during the pandemic

Lets dust off these powers that allow councils to do works the landlord isnt doing

Why allowing landlords to build extra storeys should be enough to make you throw in the towel

The reality of trying to deal with fraudsters in illegal eviction cases. Incessant multiple companies causing confusion

The reality of trying to deal with fraudsters in illegal eviction cases. Incessant multiple companies causing confusion

The depressing news that housing enforcement is a necessary growth industry

s40 Administration of Justices Act 1970

How to cut through confusion on licences and tenancies

Is eviction the only way for tenants in c19 rent arrears? Lets hope not

Safer renting reporting on the lives of victims of rogue landlords that the English Housing Survey dont talk to

Tenant gets landed with a utility bil of £15,000+ that they dont owe

Read about the little used Council powers to clear unpaid utility bills to maintain supply

Read about the chaos created by Rent 2 Rent scammers for occupants and enforcement alike

Read about the chaos created by Rent 2 Rent scammers for occupants and enforcement alike

At last renters have a chance of obtaining larger RRO awards

Find out a largely unknown method that rogue landlords and agents are using to steal money from renters

Should local authorities be able to take over management control of a property where the landlord or agent are harassing or illegally evicting tenants?

Step by step guide to advisers on how to reclaim deposit protection penalties

Deposit protection scams of rogue landlords

One perennial problem facing tenants in the throes of being harassed or illegally evicted, is calling the police only to be advised that disputes between landlords and tenants are civil matters and not a problem that police can resolve.

Our staff here at Safer Renting are used to visiting buildings with appalling living conditions, but were surprised recently when we were called to a prime property in central London with an exclusive address. Viewed from the outside, you might assume that it housed bankers or art dealers.

Once inside, any such notions disappeared before we’d even closed the front door:

On Wednesday, a couple of conundrums landed on the desk of the 7 people that constitute the Safer Renting posse.

Both concerned cases where our partner council EHOs had served prohibition orders on properties, with an effective date two weeks away but where curiously the occupants didn’t want to move out, despite the dreadful conditions.

To counter complaints voiced in landlord press that local authorities are failing to enforce against rogue landlords and agents, Safer Renting brings you a monthly roundup of the real work being done, stories which are often not reported on more widely than the local papers. We welcome any stories of yours that we missed.

The Harassment and illegal eviction are criminal offences under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Legal action is brought by the council and the tenant becomes a witness in the local authority prosecution. At the same time, they are also civil offences, known as ‘Breach of Covenant for Quiet Enjoyment” and a renter can take their own action as well as the council prosecution, so the offending landlord or agent can receive a criminal record and be fined and be ordered to pay damages to the tenant in a civil claim. Civil claims are generally heard much faster than criminal ones but there are two main barriers to renters taking their own action.

Back in April 2019 the national press picked up on a success story of a group of students who won a Rent Repayment Order against their landlord, kick starting a wave of interest from tenants and advisers alike. One of the crucial items we tick off our list at Safer Renting when interviewing one of our referred clients these days is whether or not the possibility for an RRO exists. In fact, RROs have been around for quite a while, having been ushered in by the Housing Act 2004 but they weren’t flavour of the month until comparatively recently. Why?

I was genuinely fascinated to read about a new concept in rental living reported in free London newspaper, City AM, where prospective tenants choose to pay through the nose for small living spaces that come without bills or the necessity for cleaning and offer a more communal experience, with plumbed in activities, such as yoga classes and mental wellness sessions. Is this where certain groups of younger, wage earning tenants are looking for their housing needs? If so I wonder if contemporary renting laws, kickstarted with the Law of Property Act 1925 fits with this trend, if trend it be. 

Evictions from a private tenancy are a major part of the 78% rise in homelessness since 2011. So-called allow private landlords to turf tenants out without any reason, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation attributes 80% of the recent rise in evictions to this process. We must be able to hold landlords to account if we are to lower the numbers of people that end up at local authorities’ doors.

Safer Renting Director Roz Spencer shares insights into London’s broken private renter market and demands proper protections for renters in the Guardian.

’On the first day of my paid internship at the Safer Renting project, my manager informed that I would be getting up at five o’clock the next morning to enter a property with a warrant from the magistrate’s court. I soon realised that this was no ordinary internship.’ – Safer Renting intern Sarah Collins shares her experiences.

‘Last November, Jack returned home after a holiday to find that the lock to his front door had been changed and some of his belongings were scattered across the hallway’ – An insight into the work of Safer Renting.