Why are small landlords bearing the brunt?

I have been looking at the Office for National Statistics
They show that very few rented properties have vacant bedrooms but it is common
place for owner occupiers,
So in a time of a housing shortage is it not in the national interest for everybody to rent?
Why spend so much time working to buy a house to leave it to Inheritance tax?

Grenfell?
More people died on the roads in the last fortnight.
What we need is realism and more proportionality (and more housing) not more ‘accountability’ that has led to fewer towers blocks being built.

The government want to tax, fine and generally regulate small landlords out of existence because they provide the bulk of rented accommodation and provide effective competition against more expensive corporate providers.

Don’t expect fairness, just ask what they are going to whack us with next.

We have wet behind the ears politicians who believe the fairy tales the housing lobby feed them. The idea that corporate housing can “professionalise” the industry, creating better homes whilst giving shareholders a great return and having cash left over to help out ministers. The reality will be the Thames Water model or the Rail industry model or the steelworks model etc. Asset strip and hold out your hand for government subsidies.

Reply to the comment left by Peter Merrick at 16/10/2026 – 08:04
I couldn’t agree more. Like councils with council tax. I had east riding council send me a £90 fine because due to east riding councils computerised online payment system having gone down just before the payment deadline, I was unable to pay them the day before the deadline, I sent the payment the following day and then quite promptly with a couple of days I received the late payment fine. I then visited the local council offices and had to get snotty with a member of staff that told me the penalty couldn’t be overturned. Eventually after hanging round as other people arrived in the waiting area and being quite vocal about it and pointing to the unhelpful member of staff who called in security. I told security my predicament and they spoke to her and she decided to call head office. She did her best to prime the staff at head office not to let me off a fine caused by their system before reluctantly handing me the phone. I said to head office that is it right I’ve been fined because you’re systems had gone down. And they hesitated but did decide to scrub the fine.
I departed saying to the woman thanks for being so obstructive. I’d have lost £90 if I’d accepted your advice. Hope you have a lovely day, Goodbye

The Small concerned Landlord is absolutely right in comparing Grenfell criminal mater and which is still awaiting the trial reward the person responsibly through total negligence of the 72,000 dead. Prior to the court she is still able to command that salary that most small landlords will be happy to get a 1/4 after their heavy investment in the properties that the small rent while this person is not fined for forgetting a paper. It is just punitive measures for small landlords and possibly rewards for negligence and criminality. I know that our association only uses the criminally with its members but NRLA is very timid with this time of crimes and injustices, after all they voted for the abolition of section 21 contrary to their members vote.

Hi there,

The asymmetry you’re describing is real, and it has a specific legal cause that’s worth knowing, because it changes how you protect yourself.

Almost everything a council can do to a small landlord now arrives as a civil penalty. They decide, they impose, nobody goes near a court, and nobody has to prove you meant it. Under the Renters’ Rights Act that runs to seven thousand pounds for a first breach and forty thousand for a serious or repeat one. Which is the quiet irony in your first point, because the forty thousand figure you want aimed at corporate decision makers is already pointed at you.

What happens to those decision makers mostly travels through criminal prosecution or a regulator, where somebody has to prove the case to the criminal standard, with intent in the mix. That’s slower, rarer and far more survivable. Same conduct, completely different machinery.

The practical consequence is the bit worth acting on. Your defence is hardly ever that you didn’t mean it. It’s the file showing you complied on the date in question, so dated certificates, proof of service and the deposit prescribed information are worth more to you than being right. You also get 28 days to make representations before most penalties are finalised, and councils do reduce them.

OJ