When you’re renting a home, things can and do go wrong. It can happen often, easily and to anyone. It’s when there is a refusal or unreasonable delay to put things right, and enforcement bodies don’t step up to help, that bigger problems emerge.

Earlier this summer, Luke (not his real name) approached his local CAB with a longstanding issue with rising damp in his rented flat. The damp was all over his bedroom walls, the bathroom and the living room had damp too, caused by poor ventilation. The letting agent and landlord told Luke that they weren’t willing to deal with the problem.

Luke eventually had to move his things to his mum’s as they were getting damaged, and his mental health deteriorated as he tried to deal with the damp by himself. To make things worse, his council’s homelessness service told him they couldn’t help him unless he got a notice to quit, which his landlord said they couldn’t give.

The Housing Bill that’s currently going through the Scottish Parliament promises to deliver more tenant protections, but what good are more protections if they aren’t enforced? Last year, the Scottish CAB network gave out just under 2,000 pieces of advice on repairs, and many people came to us as, like Luke,their letting agent or landlord weren’t willing to deal with the problem.

As providers of homes and receivers of rent, it is staggering that they wouldn’t help their tenant. The majority of landlords maintain their homes to high standards and have very satisfied tenants. However, when even a small number of landlords don’t comply with their obligations, they can bring the whole sector into disrepute.

Local authorities can offer advice and support to landlords who are struggling. They also have the power stop landlords from renting out homes if they’re falling below required standards. CAS has long called for mandatory training for landlords before they start renting out: in a time where we’ve seen a lot of changes in the private rented sector, we think this is more important than ever and it’s unthinkable that landlords are expected to run a good business without this type of support from the outset. We know there is good practice happening around Scotland, but this needs to happen everywhere through a new approach to landlord training, backed up by resources.

We know there are many barriers to enforcement, such as tenants’ reluctance to report issues for fear of reprisal and lack of awareness. These factors came into sharp focus in our research into repairs last year and are difficult to address, especially when someone is fearful they will lose their home if they report an issue. Knowing that, advice and support through services like the CAB network is critical, but at the crux of the problem is under-resourced enforcement teams in local authorities. No Council wants a poorly-run private rented sector operating in its area, but it feels to us that they can do little about it with the time and resources they have. 

The Housing Bill promises big things, but we need a better enforcement system. That means resourcing and empowering local authorities to crack down on bad practice when needed. Without that, we’ll continue to let down even more people like Luke. 

Aoife Deery is housing spokesperson at Citizens Advice Scotland.

This column was first published in the Herald.