Private renters in Nottingham are among the best protected from so-called revenge evictions, according to the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Nottingham City Council is among the top ten councils for taking formal action and offering tenants protection from landlords who evict tenants after they raise a complaint. The council is making use of a power that came in under the Deregulation Act 2015 which means that renters who raise a complaint with their landlord cannot be evicted for six months – but only if the council formally gets involved and issues an improvement notice for certain hazards such as damp, cold, asbestos, over-crowding and poor security.

The CIEH says that many councils try to resolve matters informally and not all complaints will involve this level of hazard, leaving one tenant in every 20 who complains to their council unprotected. It cites the top councils for taking formal action and offering tenants protection as Tower Hamlets, Merton, Nottingham, Wiltshire, North Somerset, Waltham Forest, Bournemouth, and Cornwall.

Nottingham City Council’s Head of Safer Housing and Anti-Social Behaviour, David Walker, said: “We are wholly focused on ensuring that private tenants can raise issues about the state of their property without being penalised either by rent increases or revenge evictions by unscrupulous landlords.

“Wherever possible, when we receive a complaint we will take formal action which rightly gives tenants protection from this sort of thing, while ensuring that the necessary improvements to the property are carried out.”
If private renters in Nottingham experience problems with their property or landlord, they should call the council’s Safer Housing Team for advice and support on 0115 876 1331.