HMO Landlords

[pinkpapaya]

Hello,
can anyone tell me what is likely to happen to a person renting out a shared house/HMO house who:

a) isn't a registered landlord
b) hasn't been telling the taxman
c) has been renting to a person no right to rent
d) hasn't been providing gas checks
e) committed meter tampering and electricity abstraction
f) harassed tenants in a mild way
g) has no fire safety in the house
h) does no electrical checks
i) hasn't protected tenant deposits

Will they get into trouble or does nothing happen usually?

There are currently 4 people sharing a kitchen but usually there are 5. There is no shared space apart from the kitchen, a small downstairs shower room and an upstairs bathroom. My cousin has the second largest room (what would have been the front sitting room) but is being charged £30 more in rent increase than the woman upstairs who has the largest bedroom in the house.

Can she challenge this rent increase on the grounds of non-licensed HMO, no gas safety, no fire safety and the evidence of the electric meter being removed by the energy company at a rent tribunal?

Not specifically on those grounds, although she should include them. She can challenge the rent increase at a tribunal because it isn't a fair market rent. Not that there is a market rate for illegal HMOs...

Has the landlord followed the correct procedure for increasing the rent?
england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/how_to_challenge_a_rent_increase

Realistically, you do realise that she will likely have to find a new home? Personally, I wouldn't want her living there in an unsafe building with a landlord who harasses her anyway. Does she have somewhere she can stay temporarily if she needs to move out?

The likely outcomes will be:

The good outcomes will hopefully be that the landlord is fined, possibly blacklisted, the work is either done or the building shut down, your niece gets 3x her deposit back and 12 months rent through a rent repayment order. That will take time though. But...

The council may shut the place down so she will have to move out.

The landlord might do the necessary work to bring the HMO up to standard but then evict her as soon as he can legally.

Or worse, the landlord starts harassing her more.

If it were my niece, I would encourage her to pursue all the complaints to stop the landlord from continuing to exploit people and endanger their lives. I would also make sure she moved out as soon as the EHO had been (they can only visit if invited by a tenant).

@chesirecat99

Not specifically on those grounds, although she should include them. She can challenge the rent increase at a tribunal because it isn't a fair market rent. Not that there is a market rate for illegal HMOs...

Has the landlord followed the correct procedure for increasing the rent?
england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/how_to_challenge_a_rent_increase

Realistically, you do realise that she will likely have to find a new home? Personally, I wouldn't want her living there in an unsafe building with a landlord who harasses her anyway. Does she have somewhere she can stay temporarily if she needs to move out?

The likely outcomes will be:

The good outcomes will hopefully be that the landlord is fined, possibly blacklisted, the work is either done or the building shut down, your niece gets 3x her deposit back and 12 months rent through a rent repayment order. That will take time though. But...

The council may shut the place down so she will have to move out.

The landlord might do the necessary work to bring the HMO up to standard but then evict her as soon as he can legally.

Or worse, the landlord starts harassing her more.

If it were my niece, I would encourage her to pursue all the complaints to stop the landlord from continuing to exploit people and endanger their lives. I would also make sure she moved out as soon as the EHO had been (they can only visit if invited by a tenant).

The EHO from the council is visiting next week, HSE have said they will pursue, Energy company will go after them, HMO licensing are on the case, HMRC tipped off and the council is now talking about getting her a housing solicitor.

Yes, this is why she is doing this to stop anyone else getting caught this way by the landlord

Thank you for the absolutely excellent advice and all the links that have been provided on this thread. Reports have been made. Niece is flathunting. You have been brilliant and I am so grateful for every bit of advice.

Thanks for the feedback @pinkpapaya and well done for being so proactive. Fingers crossed those two incompetent and dishonest individuals will get their knuckles severely rapped.

That's great news, @pinkpapaya!

Do encourage your niece and the other tenants to pursue the rent repayment order to get their rent back for the past 12 months. Hitting the greedy landlord in their pocket is the best way to stop them from exploiting more tenants. They clearly don't care about their tenants' health and safety or the law but do very much care about the money.

You have been fantastic but I have a final question to ask please for 'in the meantime' - the girls in the house share have had the landlord's husband letting himself in whenever he feels like it and harassing them generally by turning up in the common areas at all hours. They want to change the cyclinder locks to their rooms to stop this occurring and it is a cheap and easy thing to do with no damage to the doors. They have been told they can do this due to the harassment issues but what do they say to the landlord or the husband when they find out about the lock change? Or if the landlord claims to 'need' a key for emergencies?

Say nothing, under the current circumstances.

Their contract probably says that they can't change the lock without the landlord's permission and have to provide the landlord with the new key, which defeats the object of changing the locks so I would just do it and keep quiet. If he needs access for maintenance, they can either be present or leave the room unlocked.

That way, the only way he will find out that they have changed the locks is if he turns up and tries to let himself into their rooms without notice or permission. If he does that, they should remind him that it is illegal for him to enter their rooms without permission and they will be making a complaint of harassment to the police, and they were advised they could change the locks because of his previous harassment. They should also make a complaint of harassment (non-emergency number, unless they are scared) if he turns up and lets himself into the communal areas drunk, is aggressive, comes in late at night or without a reason.

Of course, there is the risk that in a genuine emergency they may have to pay for any damage if the landlord has to break in but I would run that (miniscule) risk.

Thank you so much. I will relay that to them. Just so bad that people have to put up with this! Can't wait for my niece to leave!

Very useful website on rent repayment orders:

www.getrentback.org/index.html

My late dp lived in a house that had been "converted" I use this in the loosest term as it was nothing short of a hovel, house that was described as 4 flats. He had no heating except for an electric panel heater in the living room, nothing in the bedroom or bathroom, the landlord also put a calor gas heater in each flat which are illegal as they can cause carbon monoxide build up, the hot water ran on a 10 litre boiler under the sink ( he woke up one morning to find the living room inches deep in water after it burst & spent the rest of the time with no hot water) Black mould on the walls that came back every time it was painted over. Each flat had the same key so we had other flat holders walking in drunk when we were in bed, no smoke or carbon monoxide alarms, if there had been a fire the people in the two upstairs flats would not have got out. We reported the landlord to the rentable standars office at the council, late dp got offered a council flat as a priority but sadly he passed away 2 days after.