UK: rent repayment order cannot be made against director of a corporate landlord

The decision of the UK Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) in Kaszowska v White [2022] UKUT 11 (LC) was given last week. The decision is short but important because it makes clear that a rent repayment order under section 40(2) of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 cannot be made against the director of a corporate landlord.  In reaching this conclusion, the Tribunal observed (para. [27]): 

It is true that, without the opportunity to proceed against the directors of an insolvent company which was their landlord, some tenants will fall outside the scope of rent repayment orders and the statutory policy of combatting the activities of rogue landlords may be less effective as a result. But, as Arnold LJ put it in Rakusen at [40]: 'It nevertheless remains the case that Parliament has legislated to implement that policy only to the extent provided for by the language of section 40(2)'.