£5.6bn In Rent On Homes That 'Don’t Meet Legal Standards'

Only about 2,000 landlords have been prosecuted in the last eight years, despite studies suggesting that hundreds of thousands of families are living in dangerously substandard private rented accommodation.  According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, private landlords are taking £5.6bn in rent on homes that “don’t meet legal standards” – £1.3bn of which comes from state housing benefits. The body has said it believes that 740,000 families in the English private rent sector are living in homes that present a severe threat to the occupants’ health. Shelter has put the number of people living in accommodation that is unfit for human habitation or where the landlord exploits or harasses them at more than 250,000. But figures obtained by the Residential Landlords Association showed that 2,006 landlords have been convicted in the last eight years, with the average fine handed down standing at £1,500. Read more on the Guardian website.