One of the UK’s leading professional bodies for private sector landlords has launched an attack on often ‘downright false’ statistics that it says can darken the reputation of landlords.

The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) cites the example of how it was reported that 50 percent of tenants’ deposits had been wrongly retained by landlords. Government statistics later put the figure at 15 percent.

Another report on fire safety alleged that there were an enormous amount of bedsit deaths. But the figures were not supported by others collated by the National Health Service.

“The government acknowledged that the figures were blatantly wrong,” said Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association whose members own over 100,000 private rented properties throughout the UK.

Ward added: “Yet downright false statistics, like these, tend to become part of the popular psyche and have even influenced some of the sheer weight of new legislation that has been heaped on the private rented sector in the last decade.

“We are concerned about how questionable statistics like these are dreamed up and then used to support measures against landlords that are just not necessary. It may attract initial headlines but in the long term it clouds the issues and makes sensible and constructive dialogue very difficult.”

As a result the RLA is arguing that there should be no further un-necessary regulation. Instead it maintains that a supervised system of self-regulation and accreditation is the way forward – whereby accreditation schemes approve individual landlords and properties as meeting required standards.

Ward said: “There has been far too much lame and ineffective legislation recently and most of it burdens the vast majority of well behaved landlords instead of encouraging enforcing authorities to focus on the non-compliant minority.”

According to the RLA there are a staggering 62 pieces of government legislation with which modern private sector landlords need to be familiar and 20 other related laws could affect their business as well as unrepealed laws dating back to the 13th century.

More than 100 years of legislation covers not only core areas such as consumer protection, fire precautions, smoke detection, gas, electricity, public health and eviction but also data protection, disability discrimination, noise, human rights, matrimonial homes, race relations, anti-social behaviour, sex discrimination and terrorism legislation.

Ward concluded: “All tenancies in the private sector are affected by this burden of bureaucracy. Instead, there should be a new political programme that inspires landlords to invest and manage their properties without a growing amount of pointless legislation.

This is often used by target-driven enforcement agencies to harass the well-meaning majority while rogues who are responsible for poor standard housing are left to run free.”