Complaints about racism and dishonesty against the Mayor of Barnet were dropped because the alleged incidents did not occur when he was on official business, according to a Freedom of Information request.

Hale Councillor Hugh Rayner was cleared of failing to declare his landlord status when voting on housing policies and abusing his position at a disciplinary panel last week.

However, the council faced calls to explain why six other charges relating to Cllr Rayner’s conduct were dropped after it emerged an independent member advised against this.

Cllr Rayner, a Hale Councillor, owns 15 properties in Colindale with his wife, Susan, and four more under his firm’s name – S&H Housing Limited.

Among the original allegations, he was accused of drafting 12 month contracts permitting rent increases at any time and turning up unannounced at 10pm “pressurising” for a lease to be signed.

Although Cllr Rayner has since apologised for this in the Times Series, the council’s monitoring officer, Maryellen Salter, disallowed this part of the complaint.

In a Freedom of Information request she said the code only applies when a councillor is on council business, and dealings in their private lives are irrelevant.

Cllr Rayner was also accused of racial discrimination – but Ms Salter chose not to investigate the alleged incident as it supposedly was said to have occurred in his capacity as a private landlord.

GLA member for Barnet, Andrew Dismore, who lodged the complaint, also said Cllr Rayner had misused his position as a councillor when dealing with his tenants.

However, in justifying why this charge was dropped, Ms Salter wrote: “This is outside the scope of the code as it in relation to Cllr Rayner’s conduct as a landlord which is in his private capacity.

“In addition there is no evidence put forward that the member has actually done anything.

“Awareness of tenants that Councillor Rayner is a councillor and their possible feelings about that does not suggest any breach of the code. As such this will not go to a formal process.”

Cllr Rayner also failed to declare a disclosable pecuniary interest that he receives housing benefit directly from the council on behalf of his housing benefit tenants.

However, under the members code of conduct, this is not a disclosable pecuniary interest and Cllr Rayner was not required to register it.

Although initially accused of failing to declare he had a contractual relationship with housing provider Barnet Homes, he amended his register of interests form days after the complaint was made.

However, all members are required to complete a new register of interests form within 28 days of being elected into office.

The document adds: “Barnet Homes are a separate legal entity in their own right and any alleged contract with it is not the council.

“The code of conduct under appendix 1 contracts requires a member to register any disclosable pecuniary interests that the member has with the relevant authority.

“It does not require listing contracts with its subsidiaries."

A statement from the council said: “The monitoring officer sought all necessary advice before coming to a conclusion about whether Mr Dismore's complaints were applicable under the code of conduct.

“This includes seeking legal advice and communicating with the independent person on the panel.

“The statutory responsibility for deciding whether a complaint is applicable under the code is the Monitoring Officer's alone.

“After discussion with the independent person the monitoring officer came to the conclusion that three of Mr Dismore’s eight complaints were covered by the code and should be put before the group leaders panel, whereas the other five did not relate to Cllr Rayner’s activities as a councillor, or the code of conduct was not applicable

“All three complaints that did go forward were rejected by the panel on September 2.”