A private landlord has been fined £1,760 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs after failing to properly licence four properties in Burnley.
Michael James Perring of Alton in Hampshire was taken to court by Burnley council and pleaded guilty by letter to four counts of being a person managing a house, which was required to be licensed under Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004, but which was not so licensed.
He was fined £440 on each count at Burnley Magistrates’ Court, and a total of £1,000 costs.
All four properties are in neighbourhoods designated or previously designated as selective licensing areas by the council.
Councillor John Harbour, the authority’s executive member for housing, says: “We’re always willing to work with landlords to help provide high quality homes for our residents but we’re also prepared to take strong action against those that don’t follow the rules.”
Selective licensing has been introduced in areas across the town in order to - in the council's words - help raise demand for housing and improve management standards.
Over the past two years the council has carried out successful enforcement action against a dozen landlords for failing to apply for a licence, resulting in fines and costs totaling more than £70,000, and four civil penalties for breaking licence conditions resulting in fines and costs totalling £15,000.
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And how much has rent gone up in these areas?
I have being paying £500 per 5 year license with Newham council in East London, it took them 7 years before they even bothered to inspect the property. Licensing is a money grab by councils and a spurious tax on honest and decent landlords since none of the rogue landlords would ever bother to register or license their poperties or announce the income to HMRC.
It’s tough to view councils as anything other than money grabbing parasites given the colossal money they take in comparison to the miniscule positive change they make with that money.
If they truly wanted to improve standards, then they could introduce a scheme in which you pay for the inspection. If you pass the inspection you get the licence. The inspection could be done by any commercial accredited company. Due to competition that inspection wouldn’t cost anything like the £500-£700 that councils claim is needed just to cover costs (we all know this is, in reality an opportunist money grab). There is no need for any involvement from the councils other than to request proof of an in date inspection - a process that could be automated to the point of not costing anything to run.
Of course they won’t do this, because the only reason they are doing this in reality is so they can fleece landlords (who in turn put rents up, so they are in effect fleecing the renters).
Renters and activists etc may be happy to hear the landlords are paying through the nose again but sadly this does renters harm. It does almost nothing to raise standards (see the comment above from Simon Lucas who after paying £1000 in to the scheme had one inspection after 7 years) and it leads to increased rents, landlords selling up (so less choice) which in turn means less supply and higher rents again. If the system truly ran at cost price, it would be cheap, it would not lead to higher rents, it would not lead to good landlords selling up, and it would raise standards. If not for the greed of the councils.
That's because they ARE money grabbing parasites! Councils, charities, activists and the politicians that pander to them know that this hurts renters, they just don't care. They just deal with the fallout by using the 'greedy, grasping landlord' narrative. They literally dip their hands in your pocket and offer nothing of value in return, like all Government and local authority 'services'.
None of my properties require a licence yet, but no doubt at some point they will, all my tenants will receive notification of a rent increase with an accompanying letter explaining why.
Steve, careful what you wish for your application only covers one inspection visit and if it doesn’t pass first time which is likely when they come up with all the things you didn’t know about. As in Harrow second and subsequent visits they charge you £85.00 per hour. I have it in writing but the letter is 2 years old it could have increased in the interim, of Course you don’t know what an hour is ?.
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