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Private Sector Housing Enforcement Policy 2024

17.0 Rent Repayment Orders

17.1 Rent Repayment Orders were introduced under The Housing Act 2004 to cover situations where the landlord of a property failed to obtain a Licence for a property that was required to be Licensed. 

17.2 Rent repayment orders have now been extended through the Housing and Planning and Planning Act 2016 to cover a wider range of offences:

  • Failure to comply with an Improvement notice (Housing Act 2004)
  • Failure to comply with a Prohibition Order (Housing Act 2004)
  • Breach of a Banning Order made under the Housing and Planning Act 2016
  • Using violence to secure entry to a property (Criminal Law Act 1977)
  • Illegal eviction or harassment of the occupiers of a property (Protection from Eviction Act 1977)

17.3 Rent Repayment Orders are an additional penalty over and above any other sanction and can be granted to either the tenant, where they were paying rent themselves, or the local housing authority, where rent was paid through Housing Benefit or through the housing element of Universal Credit. If the rent was paid partially by the tenant then any rent repaid must be split.

17.4 Where a Civil penalty has been imposed in respect of an offence, and there is no prospect of the landlord appealing against the penalty, a rent repayment order can be made against the landlord. Any income received by the Council is ring-fenced to support further Enforcement Action.

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