Bad Tenants Register for irresponsible lifestyles?

Having been in the rental business for nearly 20 years, I have had my fair share of bad tenants, leaving unpaid rent debt and generally trashing the property. Fortunately, this has not happened very often. but when it does it is a real eye opener.

Just recently a tenant left me with £2k unpaid rent debt, but actually I was more irritated that they left half their belongings, a fridge full of rotting food and a filthy house.

What has incensed me even more is that these tenants were immediately re-housed by the council, continued to receive their housing benefits, with no reference to me as their Landlord for a reference. So now, some other poor landlord will undoubtedly receive the same treatment.

I am dealing with this at a local level, by sending the check out report to the housing office etc, but considering there is so much talk about getting a Landlords register, why on earth can’t we set up a “Bad Tenants register” ? Is this another response we can make to s24, to raise the profile of good landlords and flush out those tenants who continually expect others to pay for their irresponsible lifestyles?

I am keen to see what we can set up for this, understanding that holding data on individuals is probably a difficult thing to overcome – any legal advice?

Anyone else interested to see how we can do this?
Cheers,
Jill