Landlords and agents with properties in Bradford have failed to pay more than £1.5 million in civil penalty notices (CPNs) since 2018.

A report shared with the council’s Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee explains that its housing teams have issued CPNs with a value of just over £2 million, with penalties ranging from £1,275 to £30,000. By September 2025, about £400,000 of CPN debt had been collected. During 2024/25 the teams served 43 final CPNs with a total fine value of £296,000.

It explains: “CPNs are difficult and time consuming to recover with cases in abeyance due to appeals for some time and can also result in written off debt. Of the total CPNs issued, £90,000 has had to be written off.”

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health recently warned that councils are already severely under-resourced and struggling to meet their enforcement burdens. It says the Renters’ Rights Act’s heavy reliance on civil penalty notices appears to assume this income will support a significant proportion of the cost of enforcement.

Banning

Bradford's HMO team has applied to the First Tier Tribunal seeking its first ever banning order against one of the district’s landlords with a large portfolio of HMOs, who has a long history of contraventions and convictions. He has recently been issued with CPNs nearing £40,000.

However, the authority also points to some success with its NEAT (Neighbourhood Environmental Action Team) project, which runs for six months. It targets different streets across different wards daily with support from the housing standards team.

Respond

“Agents and landlords on the whole respond positively to proactive inspections…all are advised beforehand of the reasons for the approach and what is expected of them,” the report explains. “There is usually no objection to the inspections and more co-operation than obstruction. Officers are not aware of any threats of retaliatory eviction. Historically, there is also anecdotal evidence to suggest that many ‘good’ landlords have moved their business from non-compliant agents because they feel that the advice they were given that the property was in suitable condition for renting was inaccurate and therefore unprofessional.”

Bradford Council has just launched a consultation on housing and wants input from residents, including tenants and landlords on housing topics from affordability and energy efficiency to the design of homes.

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