Recommendation 30

The success of the Government’s reforms depends to a great extent on tenants knowing their rights, and on landlords knowing that they know them. For this 64 Reforming the Private Rented Sector reason, the Government should update the How to Rent Guide to include details of tenants’ and landlords’ rights and responsibilities, including, in particular, how tenants can seek redress, and produce foreign language versions of this guide. It should then assess the level of compliance among landlords with the requirement to provide tenants with a copy at the start of a tenancy and, if necessary, consider ways of increasing awareness of it. A tenant whose landlord fails to provide them with a copy of the guide should be able to complain to the ombudsman, and, where the ombudsman upholds such a complaint, it should have the ability to award compensation. More widely, the Government should review the adequacy of advice and support services to tenants, particularly the most vulnerable, and report back to us on how it plans to make sure tenants have the knowledge and confidence to hold their landlord to account. (Paragraph 153) Reforming the Private Rented Sector 65