More landlords are prosecuted in Liverpool for failing to meet fire, health and safety standards than anywhere else in the country, it can be revealed.
A report on the council's landlord licensing scheme has revealed only 30% of privately rented homes across the city are compliant with housing standards, resulting in almost 200 rogue landlords being taken to court and thousands of legal notices being served.
Mould, cracked ceilings and decrepit walls and floors are just some of the squalid conditions officers have discovered on recent inspections inside run-down rented houses - as these pictures show.
Other images show tenants living in homes with collapsed ceilings, broken gullies, open sewerage, inadequate fire doors and unsafe boilers.
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Officers shared pictures of the dangerous conditions they find vulnerable families living in ahead of plans to renew the scheme for a further five years.
The council will have to request permission from the government to extend the scheme - but are hopeful their application will be successful in light of figures which suggest the city is leading the way nationally in cracking down on selfish landlords.
Speaking at a Neighbourhood Select Meeting earlier this week, Ron Odunaiya, Director of Community Services said: "We have now prosecuted more landlords in the city than anywhere else in the United Kingdom."
He added: "That sounds very dramatic but what we are saying is the work that’s going on have made a fundamental difference to the way properties are managed. "
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The Landlord Licensing Scheme was launched in 2015 and requires all landlords to apply to become a registered landlord in order to rent a home.
Since its launch it has resulted in:
- 46,824 licenses being issued
- 22,863 compliance checks carried out
- 10,000 breaches discovered, including fire, health and safety issues
- Standards raised in over 3,000 homes
- 2,100 legal notices served, resulting in 167 successful prosecution counts and 99 civil penalty notices
The scheme has also allowed the council to tackle anti-social behaviour and litter dumping in privately rented homes through targeted enforcement action in many areas including Anfield and Toxteth.
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Mr Odunaiya said: "This is the first time we have been in a position to understand how many landlords we actually have in terms of those that are licensed.
"Of all those licensed properties only 30% were compliant. We have got a whole team of people going out to 46,000 properties which is a huge task.
"The important thing for us is that we go to the properties, inspect if things aren’t right and then work with the landlord, the tenant, to ensure they are put right.
"If we lost landlord licensing, we would have five enforcement staff for the entire city, We currently have 60. You see the scale of what this provides to you as active members of the city
"It provides an opportunity to ensure those who are doing a good job are accepted and supported and those who aren't we find out and put right."
Ahead of making an application to extend the scheme to the government, the council are undertaking a public consultation to allow tenants and landlords to have their say.
The consultation will run from now until the 26th May and can be accessed here.
