Banning order

A banning order is a legal prohibition, made by the First-tier Tribunal on application by a local housing authority, that prevents a landlord or property agent from letting residential property, carrying out letting agency work, or engaging in property management work in England. Banning orders are made under Part 2 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and came into force on 6 April 2018. They are reserved for the most serious offenders, landlords and agents whose conduct is sufficiently persistent or severe to warrant removal from the sector entirely, rather than a financial penalty.

A banning order is one of the most serious enforcement tools available to a local housing authority, sitting above civil penalties and rent repayment orders in the enforcement hierarchy. A civil penalty can be imposed without a prior criminal conviction; a banning order requires one. Both can be applied for the same underlying conduct, and both result in a mandatory entry on the rogue landlord and property agent database.

What offences can lead to a banning order?

Before a local housing authority can apply for a banning order, the landlord or agent must have been convicted of a "banning order offence." These are set out in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 (Banning Order Offences) Regulations 2018 and include a broad range of housing-related criminal offences, as well as certain other criminal convictions where the conduct was directed against a tenant or related to property the landlord owned or managed.

The main categories of banning order offence include: unlawful eviction or harassment of an occupier; failure to comply with an improvement notice or prohibition order; offences under the HMO licensing regime, operating an HMO without a licence or breaching licence conditions; contravening overcrowding notices; failure to comply with an HMO management code; fraud and certain financial offences connected to the tenancy; and a range of other criminal convictions, covering theft, criminal damage, violence, sexual offences, where the offence was committed against a tenant or in connection with a tenanted property.

Crucially, the offence must have been committed on or after 6 April 2018 to be eligible for a banning order. Earlier offences do not qualify regardless of their seriousness.

Who applies and how the process works

A local housing authority has the power to apply for a banning order. A banning order may be made by the First-tier Tribunal following an application made by a local housing authority.

Before applying, the local housing authority must give the landlord or agent a notice of intended proceedings, setting out why it intends to apply, the relevant conviction, and inviting representations within a minimum period of 28 days. The landlord can respond to this notice before the application is made. Once the authority applies, the First-tier Tribunal holds a hearing, considers the representations of both parties, and decides whether to make the order and, if so, for how long.

In deciding the duration, the Tribunal must consider the seriousness of the offence, any previous convictions for banning order offences, and whether the person is already on the rogue landlord database. Real-world banning orders have ranged from 12 months to 10 years, with 5-year orders relatively common for persistent non-compliance involving serious hazards.

What a banning order prohibits

A banning order prevents the person subject to it from: letting residential property; carrying out letting agency work; and engaging in property management work. The order can also prohibit involvement in any company that carries out those activities. This means a banned landlord cannot simply transfer properties into a limited company and continue operating through it, the Housing and Planning Act 2016 contains anti-avoidance provisions specifically addressing this.

A banning order must be for a minimum period of 12 months. There is no statutory maximum period for a banning order. 

A person who carries out a prohibited activity while subject to a banning order commits a criminal offence. Transferring property to another person in order to circumvent the order is also prohibited unless the First-tier Tribunal authorises the transfer.

What happens to existing tenants?

The making of a banning order does not automatically end any existing tenancies. The Tribunal can include exceptions in the order to deal with cases where the landlord has existing tenancies and does not have the power to bring them to an immediate end. In practice, this means existing tenants are not suddenly made homeless, but the landlord cannot take on new tenants, and the local housing authority may apply for an interim or final management order, which allows the council to take over management of the property and collect rent in the landlord's place for the duration of the ban.

In our experience working with self-managing landlords, banning orders are sometimes perceived as relevant only to the most egregious "rogue landlord" cases reported in the press. The Gateshead case in January 2026, a 10-year ban for persistent failure to maintain safe properties, illustrates that Tribunals take a broad view of what constitutes serious non-compliance. Damp, mould, unsafe electrics, and unlicensed properties led to that ban. These are not obscure or unusual conditions; they appear across a meaningful proportion of the private rented sector.

Landlords who use August to maintain compliance records, including gas safety certificates, EICRs, EPC ratings, deposit protection receipts, are far better placed to demonstrate that any breach was not deliberate and to engage constructively with local authority enforcement before matters escalate to the level that attracts a banning order application.

The rogue landlord database

A local housing authority must enter a person on the rogue landlord and property agent database whenever a banning order is made against them. The authority also has discretion to enter landlords and agents convicted of a banning order offence even where no banning order is made, and where a landlord has received two or more civil penalties within a 12-month period. The database is currently accessible only to local housing authorities, not the general public, though the government has consulted on extending public access and the Mayor of London operates a public version covering London.

Under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, local housing authorities have significantly strengthened enforcement powers, including higher civil penalties of up to £40,000 for the most serious breaches and mandatory PRS Database registration for all private landlords. These sit alongside the existing banning order framework and are designed to create a more coherent enforcement ecosystem in which persistent non-compliance carries escalating consequences.

Frequently asked questions

Is a banning order the same as a civil penalty? 

No. A civil penalty is a financial sanction, currently up to £30,000, rising to £40,000 under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, that a local housing authority can impose without the landlord having been convicted of a criminal offence. A banning order requires a prior criminal conviction for a designated banning order offence and is decided by the First-tier Tribunal rather than the council. They are separate tools that can be used in relation to the same underlying conduct.

How many banning orders have actually been issued? 

Relatively few. In the two years following their introduction in 2018, only 21 banning orders had been issued across England. The number has grown since then but remains small relative to the size of the private rented sector, reflecting the high threshold, criminal conviction, required before an application can be made, and the resource demands the process places on local housing authority enforcement teams.

Can a landlord appeal a banning order? 

Yes. A landlord subject to a banning order can appeal to the Upper Tribunal. An appeal must be on a point of law or on the grounds that the Tribunal made an error of fact. The banning order remains in force during the appeal unless the Tribunal or Upper Tribunal grants a stay.

What if a landlord ignores a banning order? 

Carrying out a prohibited activity while subject to a banning order is a criminal offence under Section 21 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. A landlord who continues to let property in breach of a banning order can be prosecuted and faces an unlimited fine.