The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) service across the country gives advice to 22,000 people every year with a problem relating to a private rented property. 


Between April and December 2014 Oxford CAB helped 330 people with problems with a private landlord. 
Problems include clients whose tenancy deposits have not been returned to them or whose deposits were not properly held in approved protection schemes by their landlords. 


CAB has seen evidence of a landlord who appears to repeatedly put a rental property on the market only to withdraw it at the last moment, leaving clients having to make emergency arrangements for accommodation and having to take legal action to have their deposits returned.


Other cases have involved tenants enduring vermin infestation in their rented property, finally confronting the landlord with the problem, only to have the landlord decide it would be simpler (and presumably cheaper) simply to evict the tenant.


Oxford City Council has been commendably proactive in trying to tackle these challenges through tenancy relations and environmental health staff, the HMO licensing scheme and the landlord accreditation scheme.


But CAB think even more action is needed, the private rented sector being one of the last remaining markets where consumers are still woefully under-protected.


Oxford CAB is, therefore, campaigning for better protections for private renters.


It believes that:

  1. No renter should be evicted simply for complaining about bad conditions. CAB want to see an end to retaliatory evictions.
  2. No renter should be at the mercy of rogue landlords who consistently break the rules, taking deposits unlawfully, harassing tenants or renting substandard homes. All local authorities in England should set up a register of landlords.
  3. No renter should ever be left out of pocket after renting a home which proves to be dangerous or uninhabitable. Tenants should be entitled to rent refunds where the property they’re living in is dangerous or not fit to live in.
  4. No renter should ever have to pay excessive and inexplicable fees for the basic services a letting agent provides. CAB want to see an end to extortionate fees levied on renters by letting agents.
  5. No renter should ever lose their home at a moment’s notice. All tenants should get reasonable notice before having to move out, even when caught up in a landlord’s eviction.
  6. If you need any further information or wish to support the Citizens Advice Bureau in its campaigns please contact Citizens Advice – citizensadvice.org.uk/index/campaigns.htm