Ealing Tops the Charts for Housing Complaints

Council blames size of private rented sector in the borough

Ealing Council's headquarters at Perceval House. Picture: Google Streetview

December 19, 2024

A report based on information gathered through Freedom of Information requests has ranked the Borough of Ealing as having the highest number of housing complaints about in London last year.

In 2023/24 there were 2,273 complaints raised by tenants against their landlord and over five years Ealing ranks third in the capital.

The high number of complaints is accompanied by a relatively low number of prosecutions of landlords in Ealing with only three in the five years covered by the report.

Ealing Council says that the high number of complaints due to the borough having the sixth highest number of privately rented housing units in London and that it is stepping up prosecutions of the worst landlords.

The data, which was collected by Public Interest Lawyers, shows that councils in England and Wales received almost half a million complaints about landlords and housing conditions in just five years. However, local authorities took just 1,285 rogue landlords to court, with over a hundred saying that they prosecuted none at all.

The report was described by a group of prominent renters’ rights organisations as ‘worrying’, while another claimed that councils ‘lack both the resources and the political will’ to sufficiently deter landlords who fail to uphold their legal duties.

Beverley Faulkner, Housing Disrepair specialist at legal firm JF Law, said: “All renters deserve to feel safe and secure in the property they pay to live in. Unfortunately, that does not always happen. The local authority being unable or unwilling to take action against a landlord could leave a renter feeling like justice has not been done.

“However, they could seek a fair outcome through a civil claim. If negligence by a landlord causes someone to suffer harm, for example through illness caused by damp and mould, they could make a personal injury claim.”

The Liberal Democrat opposition on Ealing Council says that the high number of complaints was ‘truly appalling’ particularly as it came on the back of a tenant survey this summer which showed that about half of council tenants were dissatisfied with the repair service due to slowness and most tenants felt ignored and so did not want to engage with the council seeing it as a waste of time.

The opposition claims that the council is happy to collect fees for licensing private landlords but is reluctant to incur the costs of pursuing prosecutions or addressing tenant repair issues in a timely manner.

Councillor Gary Malcolm, Leader of the Opposition said, “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.

“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 the borough. Ealing Labour need to reflect and make important changes for 2025”

An Ealing Council spokesperson said, “Ealing has the sixth highest number of properties rented by private landlords, which accounts for the high number of complaints received. We receive 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.”

The council says a landlord who broke planning rules has received a hefty fine, and a ‘beds in shed’ landlord was ordered to pay more than £380,000. Two other rogue landlords have also received large fines with more prosecutions in the pipeline after a recent clampdown.