Coventry Council has handed out £278,782 in landlord fines so far this year, including prosecutions, financial penalties and rent repayment orders.
It reports that 32 landlords have been prosecuted in the first seven months of 2025 compared with 17 in 2024, while it has issued 27 financial penalty notices compared with 21 last year.
Five prohibition notices were served (versus two last year) but only 84 improvement notices (versus 224 last year). Last year it handed out fines totalling £354,223.
Landlords in the authority have paid for committing offences such as failing to comply with electrical safety standards, energy efficiency regulations, failure to licence an HMO or comply with HMO licensing and management regulations and failing to comply with an improvement notice.
Coventry has also received almost 900 complaints about unlicensed HMOs since the beginning of 2024. According to its latest data, 635 complaints were logged last year, with a further 250 logged so far in 2025.
The data released also reveals the number of complaints received specifically about poor conditions in HMOs last year hit 157, with 134 registered already so far this year. However, it is an improving picture across the whole PRS, with 235 complaints about poor conditions received in 2025 compared with 587 in 2024.
Cabinet member for housing and communities, councillor Naeem Akhtar (pictured) says it actively encourages tenants, residents and other key stakeholders to report any concerns relating to multi-occupied properties and investigates all complaints. “We also use other data to proactively identify potential unlicensed HMOs and prioritise these for an investigation,” he adds.
“Where we determine the property is an unlicensed HMO, we give the landlord the opportunity to licence the property. Where appropriate, we pursue enforcement action for breaches of the legislation relating to the licensing and management of HMOs.”
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