Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman will consider previous cases of inadequate conduct by landlords when making decisions on complaints.

The Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman will resolve tenant complaints about their landlords’ actions or behaviours. The purpose of Ombudsman redress is to provide fair, independent resolution of complaints and ensure that an individual making a complaint is appropriately remedied when things go wrong.

The Ombudsman will have the discretion to consider the individual circumstances of each complaint, based on the evidence provided by parties involved. This could include where evidence is provided of landlords' repeated poor conduct.

However, redress is not designed to 'punish' landlords. Local councils have a wide range of enforcement powers to tackle landlords who flout the rules and don’t keep their properties in an acceptable condition. We expect councils to take a proactive approach to enforcement in the private rented sector and give this the priority it deserves.