Torbay Mayor approves £100,000 purge on rogue landlords

“@ SmartyC - the one thing that rogue landlords don't normally have to deal with is the activity of their rogue tenants after they have taken up tenancy. The rogue landlord doesn't often live in the same property afterall.
You are right that the behaviour of tenants is not the ultimate responsibility of the landlord. That said, if you have neglible vetting of tenants before they are allowed into a property then you should, as the landlord (or an agent acting on behalf of the landlord), be held responsible for allowing a property to be used for persistent anti social behaviour; this especially so if the landlord knowingly allows the property to be used for drug abuse and dealing.
One property in our community was closed without notice for this very reason a few years ago. I believe the term used in processing that closure was an "ASLO", i.e. anti social landlord order. It certainly hit the landlord concerned hard as no one was allowed in the property for three months including the landlord. Change of ownership soon followed together with respite for the local community.
You are absolutely right with regard to a landlord taking responsibilty for the property in which tenants are housed. That said, the conditions some tenants are forced to live in in some parts of Torbay is am absolute disgrace and it is these properties, owned by a handful of rogue landlords, that have been the focus of discussions in the mayor's recent meetings.
I think one really interesting point made during the last meeting concerned the fact that troubled individuals seek accommodation in Torbay as all the agencies needed to support their chaotic lifestyles happen to be concentrated in Torquay town centre. Another was the problem of individuals dossing down in a property rented to one named individual.”

“Spindleshanks, why on earth should landlords be responsible for their tenants behaviour!?

Responsible for the property, yes of course, but it's certainly not and never has been a landlords place to babysit his tenants and make sure they behave themselves.

These are adult people and should be entirely responsible for their own actions.”

“SmartyC I think your second paragraph is entirely right, and Torbay OAP, why not deal direct with the real problem - the feral anti social tenants, its this lack of any effective way of dealing with them that perpetuates the problem, some landlords give up on it because the only answer they have available is to give bad tenants notice to quit but where does that lead us, the bad tenants will still be in town.”

“Why not use the money to allow people to do up properties that are empty to then let out to people who need them, that way we get good reasonably priced lets for people that need them. If they did it as a development loan to landlords then the money will always be available for others. Then If there is no market for rogue landlord they will then have to up their game in order to make money.”

“Torbay needs to wake up to the fact that the number of licensed HMOs in the area is about to jump from the current 80+ to over 1500 in the next 12 months. I suspect the figure will actually be higher as the number of displaced individuals from other parts of the UK start to arrive in Torbay only to be housed in properties cobbled together and bought on the cheap by a handful of rogue landlords. Many of these properties will escape the council's radar, like guest houses in Torbay currently operating as guest houses albeit housing individuals on the council's housing list rather than holiday makers.
Make no mistake, rogue landlords and rogue tenants have one thing in common - they couldn't care less about other people. Our community's experience is that the two go hand in hand; neither wanting to report the other regarding their conduct. The fact that as tax payers we are expected to have to live with the consequences whilst effectively and indirectly paying these rogue landlords is a joke and one that is wearing very thin. Some of these rogue landlords acquire properties with a payback period of 3 to 4 years so it comes as no surprise to discover they own the number of properties in Torbay they do. They can and do blight a whole community. Hopefully and with this new funding, they are going to get the wake up call they rightly deserve.
As heard at the meeting on Monday, responsible landlords have nothing to fear from this initiative and may even benefit when it comes to dealing with rogue tenants that have slipped through their own vetting proceedures.
Just feel very sorry for those individuals who through no fault of their own now face being placed in a slum of a property with numerous complete strangers, potentially at the risk of individuals using or pushing drugs and then ask yourself why the suicide rate of vunerable individuals has leapt in recent months. There are individuals in GENUINE need of help in order to live a functional life in a safe enviroment and we should not expect them to live in these slums”

“So the council are admitting that Torbay has a problem with certain rouge landlords, I would go a few steps further and say that a handful of slum landlords are making the lives of thousands of decent working people in Torbay a total misery by letting to anti-social, feral tenants, how about stopping their housing benefit payments maybe fining them to help recoup this £100,000, landlords need to held accountable for their tenants to stop this misery spreading any further.”

“Do you really believe that "a few rogue landlords in Torbay have attracted the rogue anti social tenants"..?

I'd suggest that anti social tenants couldn't give a stuff whether their landlord is good, bad or indifferent, they'll still behave in exactly the same way.”

“I take my hat off to Gordon Oliver for taking action.
Unfortunately a few rogue landlords in Torbay have attracted the rogue anti social tenants realityzone mentions in their posting. The rogue tenants are the public nuisance that spills out into the neighbourhood from properties operated by rogue landlords - exactly the type of premises blighting our neighbourhood in Torquay. Bad landlords are akin to drug dealers - they are only interested in money and not the well being of their customers.
However to say that a pressure group (presumably that based in Melville Hill area) has been wielding a stick with which to beat the mayor is nonsense. It is shameful that an area such as Torbay which survives on tourism allows visitors to the area to witness scenes of dereliction, child poverty, filthy streets strewn with household rubbish and flytipping, dog mess, empty beer cans and bottles, etc., etc.
£100,000, whilst welcome, is nothing when viewed against the financial damage that is currently being done to our town's reputation. Visitors and investors alike are walking. They are neither blind nor stupid.
The Melville Hill group want to reclaim their neighbourhood and who can blame them? With the support of the mayor and their ward councillors they are well on their way to achieving a start. Perhaps the lessons learned in the process will help other areas in Torbay as the problem of rogue landlords starts to make itself felt given the current changes in housing benefits and growth in the number of HMOs.”

“Oliver has had a lot of stick form a pressure group to spend on this but if its a small minority of landlords £ 100k seems a hell of a lot of public money to take a look at it. I can well envisage a large sum being need to address the problem of anti soical tenants of which there seems to be quite a few.”

“Does Torbay council not already have staff able to deal with such issues, without hurling money at it?

Oliver does like to throw big six figure chunks of our money about, must make him feel like a big powerful man I guess...”