A new Freedom Of Information (FOI) request has revealed that between 2019/20 and 2023/4 Ealing Council received 7,764 complaints about landlords but only three saw court action being taken by the council.
The FOI request from Public Interest Lawyers also revealed that neighbouring borough Brent saw 1,015 complaints, 31 prosecutions during the same period while Hounslow had 3,597 complaints and 16 prosecutions.
In 2023/4 Ealing Council had the most number of complaints in London with 2,273 being made compared to 1,995 in Redbridge (1,995), 1,409 in Croydon and 1,102 in Waltham Forest.
Previous years saw Ealing residents make 1,848 complaints in 2022/3, 1,732 complaints in 2021/22 and 1,911 complaints in 2020/21 to Ealing Council about landlords. 2020/21 was the only year in which the council made any prosecutions and saw three taking place. In its FOI request, the council revealed: “Court proceedings were initiated in 3 cases, but the cases were resolved prior to the hearing in each case.”
Commenting on the findings, Jae Vail, a spokesperson for the London Renters’ Union, said: “Tenants face an epidemic of hazardous housing in this country, but when we report safety concerns to our local authorities, our complaints often go ignored. Many councils lack both the resources and the political will to hold landlords accountable.”
They added: “The government must ensure local authorities have everything they need to side with renters and enforce our basic rights. Renters also need the legal right to pause rent payments in cases of serious disrepair so that we have more control over our own homes and don’t have to depend solely on councils, many of which have failed us in the past.”
Public Interest Lawyers sent a Freedom of Information request to every council in England and Wales and only 252 councils responded in time.
Tom Darling, director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “These are worrying findings. The key problem councils face here is ultimately a lack of resources, after years of rising costs and shrinking budgets.”
Mr Darling added: “We’ve called on the government to provide local authorities – who will have the crucial role of enforcing the forthcoming Renters’ Rights Bill – with the additional funding and guidance they need to protect renters from rogue landlords.”
Councillor Gary Malcolm, leader of Ealing Liberal Democrats told EALING.NEWS: “Labour-run Ealing Council are so shocking at managing its housing and how landlords act, causing huge problems for tenants. The super-huge number of complaints in recent years shows that this area of the council needs to be ripped up and reformed so that residents who are tenants get a better deal from landlords in Ealing.”
Councillor Malcolm added: “Liberal Democrats say that the almost zero number of prosecutions shows that the council is failing a very large number of residents. If the council were more effective with advice and mediation then there would not be this many problems in Ealing.”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, an Ealing Council spokesperson said: “Ealing Council receives a large number of complaints about landlords on a variety of topics, which are recorded and investigated.
“We always endeavour to work with landlords or their agents to resolve any problems without the need for enforcement. If that does not work, we take a graduated approach to enforcement. Wherever possible, landlords are notified of problems and required to rectify them. In many cases, the prospect of an inspection results in action by the landlord or agent and the matter is resolved, avoiding the need for any prosecution.
“If the matters are serious, we may issue the landlord with an improvement notice. It is an offence to not comply with an improvement notice. In nearly all cases we find that once landlords and agents are required to take action they do so.
“We take strong action against landlords who do not respond adequately to improvement notices, as can be seen by these recent prosecutions of planning enforcement breaches: Hefty fine for landlord who broke planning rules, ‘Beds in shed’ landlord ordered to pay more than £380,000, Two rogue landlords hit by large fines and Rogue landlords prosecuted in latest clampdown“
 request has revealed that between 2019/20 and 2023/4 Ealing Council received 7,764 complaints about landlords but only three saw court action being taken by the council. ){kind=link}