No Test Valley landlords prosecuted despite 219 complaints

The report, which studied responses from 252 councils across England and Wales, revealed a broader trend of limited legal action against rogue landlords despite hundreds of complaints.

Test Valley was among five Hampshire councils, alongside Basingstoke and Deane, Fareham, Gosport, and New Forest, that opted against pursuing court prosecutions.

Isle of Wight Council, with 1,167 complaints, also took no action.

Landlord prosecutions in Hampshire and IOW (Image: publicinterestlawyers.co.uk) READ MORE: Plot of land in Goodworth Clatford to go under the hammer

This data was gathered from FOI requests to every council in England and Wales.

The study argues this lack of prosecuted landlords leaves vulnerable renters without adequate protection, as councils cite resource constraints and reliance on alternative enforcement methods such as civil penalties and warnings.

Yet, data from the National Residential Landlords Association earlier this year showed only less than half of fines issued to rogue landlords between 2021 and 2023 were collected.

Reacting to the report, 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.

“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.”

Across the 252 councils that responded to Public Interest Lawyers’ request for information, 438,523 complaints or ‘service requests’ regarding housing conditions or landlord behaviour were recorded across five years.

TVBC's housing portfolio holder Cllr Kirsty North, said: “We are committed to working to improve the standard of rented properties in the borough to provide safe homes for our residents. We are focused on working with landlords to ensure they understand and meet their duties and responsibilities, and most of them will do this without our intervention.

"Where improvements are needed, we will work with landlords to ensure they undertake work quickly and effectively to ensure tenants are protected. In most cases this can be achieved without prosecution, which is a final step in the process where landlords fail to comply with statutory notices to improve their property.”