The government thinks a landlord’s house is more dangerous than a car with no MOT

You can’t appeal to a bully for fairness or sense.

Not that I am proposing it but you getting a lower fine for beating your tenant up than for issuing an old form AST or as Mick says messing up the admin with a certificate for the property.
Penalties for landlords are wholly disproportionate to the offence.

This Government and the last allegedly Conservative (Ed. Sorry insufficient evidence of conservatism to make the charge stick) Government would probably deny they hate private landlords. However, they act as if they do.

Reply to the comment left by Ian Narbeth at 06/10/2026 – 11:57
And for stabbing someone.
Chop someone’s hand off, the fine would be less.
Drunk driving the fine is less.

You’re right about neglecting the house due to fees, admin and fines.
I was planning on replacing the bathroom at one of my small hmos but then found that I suddenly needed to pay a new licence fee on the 2 small hmos in that borough that I have owned and let without issue for 30 years. Well tons of admin later, hundreds on fire assessments that state the obvious and a further £2800 in fees and I have put the bathroom on hold for a bit to let my bank account recharge.

Reply to the comment left by JamesB at 06/10/2026 – 13:23

Yes u say it perfectly, what does the Govt not understand about this. Yes they get them that were maybe hiding or not doing stuff, but now the 80% who were doing stuff, no longer do the stuff. I used to do 6-12 kitchens a year & so on. It’s not even 1 now, u give up, feel deflated, like u say bank funds gone on Council admin. Tenant loses.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 06/10/2026 – 14:33
I don’t think that the labour landlord database will get the people who were hiding or not doing stuff: I think that the landlords who don’t follow the rules will continue to take cash just as they always did. Central and local government mainly target houses that are predominantly already safe and the landlords who are (or were) already doing the right thing by being good landlords. Good tenants pay for that in the form of higher rents…marginal tenants pay for that by being unhouseable.

But yes, I think you are absolutely right that the government is creating a climate where landlords are less likely to invest and you are also right that this does not benefit tenants at all.

Reply to the comment left by Downsize Government at 06/10/2026 – 09:48
No, you cannot.
They are getting to be a dictator like the Chinese regime.
The government themselves don’t do it correctly, as they make a lot of errors, like Starmer employing Mendelson before correct clearings were completed. Nobody charged him anything at all. That was a national disaster.
The government officials cannot manage any social housing either. We don’t know if they have the test and certificates done on time or will place them on the database.
No one is speaking out and getting the government to be accountable for anything. They are causing more risk to the country than the landlords are.
Noone takes them to task.

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 06/10/2026 – 14:55

Yes u right the bad Landlords still hide. Although I did have mate ring me, been renting flat (rents out 2 flats) since 2013 no tax no nothing Oops & the database has got him scared into now coming clean.

Reply to the comment left by Tiger at 06/10/2026 – 14:55

That’s it, why isn’t someone talking loud on the News. £7000 fine for just not sending in the legally compliant certificate to the new trumped up retrospective database.
Some of us can’t cope any more, one new thing after another, constant time, hours, £’s, admin, more straws breaking the camels back.
Ok Govt u made us pack up, u made us force the sale on the tenant. We didn’t want the house anyway, only keeping it for tenant, but u pushing us too far.
We genuinely (if got too many houses & getting older) can’t keep up with the new laws/regs. They overtaking us. I would never have housed this many homeless Benefit people years ago had this rules been in. You’ve forced these rules on tenants that didn’t want them.

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 06/10/2026 – 15:28
All absolutely right: I stopped taking working-age benefits tenants two decades ago and haven’t taken any since because IF it turns out the tenant isn’t eligible for benefits the benefits office can get the money back off me but as the landlord I don’t have any powers to check eligibility. The clauses in labour’s Renters Rights Act concerning discrimination against tenants with children and tenants on benefits don’t make any difference because the Act itself makes the situation even worse for these two groups of tenants than it was before and now you also don’t have the fall-back of no-fault evictions when everything goes wrong even though what’s gone wrong is not your fault as the landlord.

We already had anti-discrimination legislation protecting race, age, gender etc. Labour didn’t fix anything that needed fixing….instead, the government just made the situation far, far worse for tenants and all that landlords can do in response is to sell, evict to develop or put family members in, or raise rents.