The London borough of Newham is to license all private landlords from January 1, 2013.
The licensing scheme, unique in England and Wales, will cover an estimated 35,000 private tenancies, representing one in three of all the borough’s households. Newham Council made the decision after consulting extensively with residents, private sector tenants, landlords and lettings agencies: 74% of residents and 76% of private tenants supported the scheme.
Private landlords will pay £150 for a five-year licence if they register before the end of this year, otherwise the full fee is £500. Landlords who fail to get a licence face fines of up to £20,000.
Licensing of landlords had already been piloted on a small scale in the borough’s Little Ilford Neighbourhood Improvement Zone which achieved 100% compliance following enforcement action against a small number of non-compliant landlords.
Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales said: “It is clear from our consultation that our residents, including tenants in private sector homes, back our plans.
“This scheme shows that Newham is leading the country when it comes to tackling bad landlords who flout the law.
“We want to ensure that private sector rented properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We also want to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with bad private sector rented housing. “There are good landlords in Newham and we want to work with them. Unfortunately there are also some unscrupulous ones, which these proposals would target.”
Sir Robin added: “Good landlords have nothing to fear from this scheme. For the bad ones, this a clear message they must clean up their act – or pay the price.
“One bad house can drag down a whole street. We are doing this for the community.”
National housing charity Shelter has urged other councils to follow Newham’s lead.
Kay Boycott, Shelter’s director of communications, policy and campaigns, said: “We are delighted that Newham Council will be introducing this scheme, which will help protect vulnerable tenants from rogue landlords who are making their tenants’ lives hell.
“With a chronic shortage of social housing and more and more people being priced out of the housing market, renting is fast becoming the only option for thousands more Londoners. Our advice service for tenants in Newham sees people every day who are suffering at the hands of rogue landlords who are ignoring their responsibilities and wreaking havoc on tenants’ lives.
“We urge other local councils to follow Newham’s lead in sending a clear signal that enforcing the law against rogue landlords is a priority.”
Comments
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Sounds like a good scheme for the Council, with all that extra revenue, they are going to gain.
The council already know who the rouge landlords are and have powers to deal with them, but nine out of ten are not investigated so now they charge the decent ones. try getting the Council to deal with there own problem tenants first.
Most landlords are good people trying to make a decent living if there homes are not up to a good standard people would not take them.
Please deal with the complaints you receive and do not blanket a charge punish everyone.
You are only concerned of rogue landlords. What about the rogue tenants, would you give any security against these rogues? If you do then I am ready to pay this unwelcomed charge. Please answer my email. Thanks.
Amanda,
If HMRC could use the data to track what the landlord pays in taxes, it could also do so for any of the tenants. They will know where all the tenants live and they will.
I am not sure it is such a good idea for various government entities to share the data. Most landlord pay taxes and the ones that do not are generally easy to spot. For many landlords who have a loan secured by the property there is little profit so there is even less tax. The bigger opportunity for tax is on the capital gains when the property is sold. That data already exists thru the Land Registry.
I am closer to Mike's thinking in that most landlords who operate correctly will just have to pay an extra charge and that will get passed on to the tenants. The rogues already operate outside the law so not likely to sign up. It might be easier to spot the rogues. Or it might be source of funding for the council to provide inspectors who chase rogues.
This could also be another way HMRC can keep a list to ensure landlords submit a tax return.
Do the really need every Landlord to register, I suspect not, good Idea for HMO's, I suspect the real motive is extra revenue for the Council £500 K + in first hit.
Like any other business the costs have to be recovered, so the Landlord will pass the cost to the Tenants, making an expensive part of the world even worse. I dont see it having any effect on Rouge Landlords as they do follow existing regulations any way.