Are Those New Council Fines Fair? A Retired Landlord's Honest Take

I've been retired from day-to-day property management for a few years now, but I still keep my ear to the ground. Lately I've seen the same question pop up in landlord forums and Facebook groups: "Are these new council fines of up to £35,000 fair? And do they make small-scale landlording not worth the risk anymore?"

Let me give you my honest answer, from someone who's managed single lets and small HMOs for decades. The short version: those headline fines are real, but they're aimed at a very specific kind of landlord — and if you're running your rental properly, you will almost certainly never see one.

What Actually Triggers a £35,000 Fine

The key thing to understand is that these are not fines for everyday mistakes like a late gas safety certificate or a deposit that was protected a week late (though those have their own consequences). The upper-end civil penalties are reserved for serious offences.

Here's the list in plain English:

• Unlawful eviction — that means physically removing a tenant or changing the locks without a court order. It's a criminal offence and has been for years.
• Harassment — doing things deliberately to make a tenant's life so unpleasant they leave, like cutting off utilities or entering without notice.
• Using an invalid possession ground — when you serve a notice claiming a ground for possession that you know doesn't apply, or you misrepresent the facts. Under the new rules, this gets much sharper teeth.
• Failing to comply with an improvement notice — if the council inspects your property, finds a serious hazard (like dangerous electrics or severe damp), and issues a formal notice telling you to fix it within a set time, ignoring that notice is a big deal.
• Running an unlicensed HMO — an HMO (house in multiple occupation) is typically a property rented to three or more people from two or more households who share facilities. Many areas require a licence, and operating without one is exactly the kind of thing councils use these fines for.

Notice what's not on that list: a tenant complaining about a dripping tap, a rent increase done properly, a deposit that's protected but returned a few days late after a dispute, or even a failed possession claim where you genuinely believed you had the right ground.

Why I Don't Lose Sleep Over These Fines

I'm not a lawyer, and you should always check the specific rules for your local council. But from my experience, the landlords who get hit with maximum penalties are almost always the ones who have ignored warnings, flouted basic safety, or tried to push a tenant out without following the law.

The £35,000 figure is a ceiling, not a starting point. Local authorities have discretion, and they generally use these powers against repeat offenders or egregious cases. A landlord who fixes the boiler when asked, protects the deposit on day one, and serves possession notices honestly is not the target.

I remember a case from my managing days: a neighbouring landlord ran a small three-bed HMO without a licence for two years. The council didn't jump straight to a huge fine — they wrote to him first, explained the licensing requirement, and gave him time to apply. He ignored it. Only then did the penalties start. That's the pattern: warnings first, fines for those who refuse to engage.

Where Small Landlords Can Still Get Caught

The risk isn't the big headline fine for a decent landlord. The risk is the slow drift into non-compliance because you didn't know a rule existed.

For example, HMO licensing rules have expanded in many areas. You might think your two-storey house with three tenants is a standard single let, but if it's three unrelated adults sharing a kitchen, it could be a licensable HMO in some boroughs. That's not a reason to panic — it's a reason to spend an afternoon checking your local council's website.

The other common pitfall is ignoring an improvement notice. Sometimes new landlords get a notice and think it's a suggestion, or they plan to fix it "when the tenant moves out." That's exactly how you turn a £200 repair into a five-figure penalty.

Is It Still Worth Being a Small Landlord?

Yes, if you go in with your eyes open. The people who say these fines make landlording "not worth the risk" are usually comparing it to a zero-effort investment. But landlording has never been zero-effort. It's a business with legal responsibilities.

What's changed is that the consequences for ignoring those responsibilities are now more visible. For a landlord who protects deposits, keeps the property safe, communicates with tenants, and uses the correct legal process when they need possession, the new fines barely register.

My advice to any new DIY landlord: treat compliance as part of your operating cost, not an optional extra. Know your local licensing rules, keep records of every notice and repair, and if you're ever unsure, pay for an hour with a landlord-savvy solicitor. That one-hour fee is a fraction of what a civil penalty could cost — and it buys peace of mind.

So are the fines fair? In my view, yes. They target behaviour that was already illegal or clearly unreasonable. The only landlords who need to worry are the ones who've been cutting corners. And if that's not you, you can keep collecting rent without losing sleep.