Councillor pushes to make landlord tribunal rulings public

An Edinburgh councillor is calling for housing tribunal rulings against landlords to be made public.

Independent councillor Ross McKenzie says greater transparency is needed and the ways in which landlords are ruled not fit to let properties should be made public.

The Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) says councils should work with landlords to promote good practice.

Motion calling for officials to explain how tribunal rulings are communicated

According to the Edinburgh Evening News, tenants’ union Living Rent says Edinburgh council’s current enforcement of housing and tenancy law is “insufficient.”

The paper reports one case where a landlord fined £3,300 told a tribunal that “the law cannot tell us what to do,” while another landlord was found to have a “poor understanding” of the law.

Councillor Ross McKenzie says it remains unclear what process the council follows when a decision is made against a landlord at the housing tribunal.

He has tabled a motion calling for officials to explain how tribunal rulings are communicated to the council and how they are assessed under the “fit and proper person” test.

The motion also asks officers to set out the thresholds and criteria used to decide when enforcement action should be taken. If approved, the findings would be published in a report to the city’s housing committee or in an update to the regulatory committee.

The Edinburgh Evening News also reports that since 2017, the council has received 3,608 complaints about unregistered landlords and 789 about unlicensed or poorly maintained HMOs.

A freedom of information request from Living Rent revealed the council has no record of how many landlords have been removed from the register.

Work with good landlords

Scottish Association of Landlords chief executive John Blackwood said the group welcomed the council’s efforts to tackle criminal landlords but urged the council to work with good landlords to promote best practice within the private rented sector.

He told Property118: “We are happy to welcome this much-needed action to tackle criminal landlords, which we have urged for some time.

“This step by Edinburgh council will reassure law-abiding landlords and will give tenants the additional confidence they have asked for.

“However, councils should also work with the private rented sector to promote good practice and to assure compliance, as many landlords do provide good quality homes to tenants.”