Banning Orders - Housing and Planning Act 2016

From 6 April 2018, parts of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 commence introducing banning orders and a database of rogue landlords and property agents in England.

Banning orders

Suppose a landlord is convicted of a “banning order offence”. In that case, a local authority may apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a banning order against the landlord or agent who committed the offence. A banning order offence includes (but is not limited to):

illegally evicting or harassing a residential occupier
using violence to secure entry
providing false or misleading information
failing to comply with an improvement notice
failure to comply with a prohibition order
offences about licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation
offences about selective licensing under Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004 (section 95)
violence for securing entry
offences related to drugs
contravention of an overcrowding notice
fire and gas safety offences
harassment and stalking

The complete list of offences that could attract a banning order at the time of writing can be found in the schedule of The Housing and Planning Act 2016 (Banning Order Offences) Regulations 2018.

A banning order will ban the person from letting in housing or acting as an agent (or both) in England.

A banning order must last for at least 12 months. However, there can be exceptions to allow, for example, a landlord to obtain possession orders against current tenants or to allow a letting agent to wind down their business.

Database of rogue landlords

At the same time, a national database of rogue landlords is introduced, and anybody with a banning order must be placed in the database. Even without a banning order, a local authority may place a person on the database if they have been convicted of a banning order offence or have received a financial penalty in respect of a banning order offence at least twice in 12 months.

Local authorities throughout England will have access to the database (and are responsible for keeping it up to date), which will allow them to ensure a landlord or agent with a banning order can’t move areas within England.