The report, A nation of renters, showed that the number of households in the private rental sector has doubled in the last decade, and unscrupulous landlords are making £5.6bn a year from unsafe homes, with £1.3bn of this paid from housing benefit.
In total, 740,000 of households in England live in unsafe private rented homes.
Unsafe properties are officially classed as homes with a Category 1 hazard, with the most commonly found hazard risks of falls, which were found in 440,000, 10%, of private rented homes. This was followed by excessively cold properties, which made up 280,000, 6%, of the homes. Some 8% of properties were found with serious damp.
Citizens Advice pointed out that the renting population had become more diverse in age range, with one million more 35 to 54-year-olds now renting privately compared to 10 years ago and over a million families raising children in a privately rented home – treble the number a decade ago.
However, this growth in diversity has seen the number of children living in hazardous properties surge, with half a million children living in unsafe private rented homes.
Citizens Advice has urged for action to be taken to protect tenants including entitlement to rent refunds where properties are dangerous or not fit to live in.
It called for a national landlord register, which could help ensure landlords operating illegally could not move to different areas to avoid legal action.
Councils should also consider setting up local licensing, the report said. This could help to ensure landlords are providing the quality of housing and service the area needs and help to ensure tenants know what they can expect from a good landlord.
The report said: “When we put together a rapidly expanding sector, poor standards and high prices, we see the true financial cost of a broken sector. In other consumer markets, failures like this would trigger consumer rights to refund or redress. As things stand, the housing market, the most important consumer market of all, is lagging far behind.”
