The new guidance has been drawn up in a collaboration between Scotland Yard, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, and rental groups.
According to reports in the Guardian, the guidance will state that officers should “arrest where necessary” when illegal evictions are taking place. Signs of an illegal eviction may include the landlord changing the locks, forcibly throwing out a tenant, cutting off the energy supply, or using threatening behaviour.
According to renter groups, police have rarely intervened when called out to illegal evictions. For example, the Safer Renting charity said that in 24 cases last year where it helped tenants who were being illegally evicted, officers only prevented two from taking place. In many cases officers either declared it a civil matter, or actively helped the landlord.
The mayor has previously identified illegal evictions in the private rented sector as a “major problem”.
In announcing the new guidance, Khan said that rogue landlords had been able to take advantage of there being few protections in place for renters.
He continued: “[The guidance] will ensure that London renters not only have a much clearer sense of their rights, but that frontline police officers are far better equipped to respond to incidences of tenants being harassed, threatened or illegally forced out of their homes by their landlords.”
According to the reports, the guidance will tell officers to separate civil from criminal acts, with police expected to warn landlords that they are committing an offence and risk arrest if they continue.
The guidance also tells police officers to report the landlord in question to the local authority’s private rented sector enforcement team, as well as adding them to the rogue landlord database.
