Councils are increasingly using powers under the Renters’ Rights Act to demand detailed information from landlords and letting agents, including documents they may have to create themselves, a property lawyer has warned.

David Smith, a partner at Bishop and Sewell, says he’s seen a rise in these notices being served on landlords and agents as councils start to understand and make use of the enforcement powers. But he says that there’s confusion about what they must provide, whether they can disclose tenant information and the consequences of failing to comply.

Housing officers can give a written notice to a ‘relevant person’, which covers the landlord, letting and managing agents, and anyone else who marketed the property - and applies even if they stopped being involved with the property months ago.

Notices are typically given for potential offending including unlawful eviction and harassment, banning order provisions in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and large parts of the Act, including the database and landlord redress provisions.

“Unlike the ‘any person’ power in section 115, there is no requirement that the officer reasonably suspects a breach before using section 114, so the merest hint of a suspicion is enough to allow for a notice,” says Smith.

Allows

The notice not only allows the council to demand documents you have, but it can also require landlords and agents to create and provide documents. “In practice this means a council can ask you to compile schedules of tenancies, rent histories, lists of properties managed or a narrative account of what happened, rather than just sending over what is in the file,” he adds. “I have seen notices which insisted on documents being sent by email and specified document types such as Excel spreadsheets.”

He adds that agents have been mistaken in the belief that they can’t hand over tenant personal data due to GDPR.

Most of the notices he’s seen gave either 14 or 28 days to comply. “That is tight, particularly where the notice requires documents to be created rather than simply copied, or where the information sits with a former agent.”

Advice

Anyone who receives a notice should take advice early, read it closely and get the response in on time, says Smith, who predicts that the volume will only increase as councils get to grips with the database and redress requirements in Part 2 of the Act.

So far, no one has been prosecuted or threatened with prosecution for failing to comply, but it could mean a £1,000 fine and potentially lead to entries on the rogue landlord and agent databases or a banning order, he warns. “The notice is also often the first step in an investigation that can lead to enforcement action under the underlying legislation so there is potential for further penalties or prosecution.”

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