The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduces the possibility of local authorities obtaining a banning order against a landlord or agent convicted of a banning offence in England. The Secretary of State is required to issue regulations which set out the details of a “banning order offence” and these are still to be developed.
Tenancy deposit schemes do sometimes see a number of breaches of the tenancy deposit protection legislation (such as failure to protect deposits, failure to protect deposits on time, non-issue of Prescribed Information and the Scheme Leaflet) as well as other issues, such as failing to submit the deposit to the Scheme where there is a dispute. These are all breaches of the existing Housing Act 2004 legislation, so it is unclear whether these offences might end up leading to a banning order or whether it will all depend on the seriousness of the offences.
Steve Harriott, Chief Executive of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme said ”it is likely that the Secretary of State will be consulting on the draft Regulations in the near future and we will want to comment on these as we are all keen to remove rogue landlords and letting agents from the industry. But we also need to consider what more we can do to educate landlords and agents about their responsibilities under the law. It may seem incredible some nine years after the deposit legislation was introduced in England and Wales that we still find landlords who seem not to know that tenancy deposits need to be protected. It’s one of the reasons why we established the TDS Charitable Foundation to increase awareness of rights and responsibilities in the private rented sector.”