Private property agents praised for high standards by Burnley Council

The group were presented with awards for their high standards of management and support they provide to people looking for private rented accommodation.

Good landlord accreditation awards were presented to: 2Let Burnley, Petty Real Estates, Burnley Sales and Lettings, Property Shop, Black Cat Property Agents, Empire Estates.

They joined other accredited managing agents RPC, Jon Simon, Belvoir Lettings and Minihan Group on the day to develop their skills further through a training day with the National Residential Landlords Association as part of their commitment to continuous professional development.

They newly accredited agents were presented with a certificate by Councillor John Harbour, the council’s executive member for housing and leisure.

Coun. Harbour said: “These awards recognise the hard work the agents are putting in to help people find a decent place to live. It’s great to see the agents who are willing to work with the council to improve housing conditions.”

The awards are part of the Good Landlord and Agent Scheme, a partnership between the council, private rented sector landlords and managing agents who rent out properties in the borough.

These improved conditions have a positive knock-on effect in terms of better living conditions for tenants and surrounding residents.

While the council is happy to work with landlords and agents who want the best for their clients, it continues to crack down on those landlords and agents who do not fulfil their legal obligations to create reasonable housing conditions.

The council is increasing the number of improvement notices to encourage landlords to improve living conditions for tenants. More than 30 improvement notices and orders have been issued since April.

The council has also recently brought three successful civil cases which resulted in a total of £30,000 in fines and costs for landlords who failed to improve conditions after improvement notices were issued.Coun. Harbour added: “We want to work with landlords and agents to improve living conditions for our residents, and the vast majority want to do that. However, we’re also taking firm action against those who don’t provide decent conditions for tenants and we will continue to take a tough approach to those rogue landlords and agents who don’t care about the state of the houses people live in.”