Landlord-perpetrated abuse of tenants in the English private rented sector. [Short report]

Criminal landlords operating in the shadow private rented sector have little interest in tenant welfare. These landlords often seek to trap tenants in poor-quality property through strategies of abuse, where a landlord’s control of the tenant is underlined by acts of physical intimidation and trespass, violation of rights and interrupting the supply of utilities. Financial exploitation includes imposing spurious fees and charges and can extend to controlling a tenant’s benefits or bank account. Control is exercised through the threat of homelessness via illegal eviction. The research has used a ‘power and control’ model to help distinguish abusive behaviours, and drew on qualitative interviews and case studies of clients of the London charity Safer Renting. In the majority of instances, they had lived in an exploitative rental arrangement for years.