A council has taken the unusual step of making an announcement that investigations are underway into allegedly unlicensed private rental properties.
Cambridge council has made the announcement following press queries about the licensing of HMOs in the university city.
The statement says: “In response to an enquiry from the media we issued the following response about the work that is ongoing to identify and investigate unlicensed landlords (of HMOs) in Cambridge.
“Councillor Gerri Bird, Executive Councillor for Housing, said: ‘We have licensed over 450 HMOs since 2018, and this year we have actually proactively expanded our work to identify any other HMOs which should be licensed.
“Once we have identified suspected licensable HMOs, we need to investigate each one to confirm whether they are in fact eligible to be licensed, including through visiting individual properties.
“This all takes time but work is underway and ongoing.
“If a tenant thinks they live in an HMO or is considering signing a contract to move into a HMO, please check with us whether they are licensed. If tenants have any concerns that their home may be an unlicensed HMO, let us know ASAP and this information will enable us to investigate as a priority.”
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In such difficult times why would any sensible tenant have an obvious incentive to grass up his current or prospective landlord for not being licensed? For one, a tenant of an unlicensed property is potentially immune from being evicted via a Section 21 and secondly, a property now having to be licensed means a guaranteed rent increase without any improvement in the state of the property for up to five years until it is inspected and third, any tenant suspected of grassing up his landlord can be evicted by a S21 along with any or all of his newly-found housemates merely by virtue of the landlord now applying for said license whether or not it actually eventually gets granted.
Yes, in theory it's possible to claim a Rent Repayment Order for up to a year's rent for being in an unlicensed HMO but in reality benefit recipients, of which HMO tenants make up a large number, actually gain nothing from such a close-to-home whistle-blow yet will likely lose their home or face a very unfriendly landlord thereafter, whilst for a tenant paying their own rent the burden of proof is "beyond a reasonable doubt" which means getting proof or an actual testimony from at least four other typically unreliable and transitory people that they all lived there at the same time within the previous year.............nevvvvvvvvvver gonna happen.
How about "Show us an unlicensed property and we will re-house you somewhere better and cheaper and/or with more security seeing as a previous landlord reference now won't be forthcoming "?
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