A Labour council claims to have a pioneering scheme to get refunds from law breaking landlords.

Local media in York say the local council is working with non-profit organisation Justice for Tenants to be made aware of rent repayment orders, which oblige a landlord to pay a refund of up to 12 months’ rent in three cases:

– if the property someone is renting does not have a licence;

– if the landlord has not complied with a council notice; or 

– if the tenant has been harassed or evicted without the correct court paperwork.

A council officer is quoted by the Yorkmix website as saying: “Justice for Tenants provides initially a free service for individuals to get that information support and advice and if they are successful Justice for Tenants takes a cut of the money that is repaid through the courts’ tribunal process.

“From the local authority’s perspective, it will assist us in terms of identifying properties that are problematic and try to encourage local residents who live in poor quality accommodation…to make a complaint because they’ll have the financial recompense should they be successful in the application.”

And the lead councillor for housing, Michael Pavlovic, adds: “As a ward councillor with a lot of HMOs in my ward, one of the things that we rely on, frankly, are residents to be our eyes and ears effectively. To say ‘this family house has now been sold, it seems to now be an HMO, can you investigate?’

“I think it will be a huge benefit. I would like to see though once Justice for Tenants and the City of York Council are working together that we do whatever we can to make sure that tenants know that this exists.

“It’s great having it as a system but if nobody knows it’s there, they can’t have recourse to it.

“And if we are trying to encourage landlords who are not aware they have to licence – there may still be some – this might be a prompt for them to register.”