A council is to spend £1m “to gather information about the conditions of specific groups of privately rented properties and proactively engage with landlords.”
Cornwall Council - which has recently been outspoken in its criticism of owners of empty homes and some holiday properties - has been awarded the £1m by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
A council statement says it will use the money ”to work proactively and engage with landlords, particularly those who rent out houses of multiple occupation or converted flats where information available to us indicate standards are likely to be poor, to help improve standards for tenants.”
In addition is says the funding will be used “to gather information about the conditions of specific groups of privately rented properties and proactively engage with landlords so the council can work with them to improve the poor living conditions faced by some residents renting in Cornwall.”
And it warns: “This could result in formal enforcement action if necessary.”
HMOs makes up an estimated 20 per cent of the housing stock in the county, where substantial numbers of properties are dedicated to holiday lets or are second homes unused for parts of the year.
Councillor Olly Monk, portfolio holder for housing and planning, says: “There are many, many good and responsible private landlords out there who value their tenants and ensure that the home they rent out is of a decent standard.
“We are in no way tarring everyone with the same brush, but we also know from the complaints we receive and the enforcement action we have a duty to take, that there are properties being rented out that fall short of the required standard.
“We want to work with those landlords to improve the homes they rent out so that residents who live in them can feel assured that they are being listened to and action is being taken.”
Cornwall Council highlights three particular problems.
These are HMOs linked to commercial premises such as restaurants, takeaways and hotels; secondly, flats within converted buildings linked to similar commercial premises; and thirdly poorly converted self-contained flats within tourist areas and areas of high deprivation.
The project will work to identify these specific types of properties, finding out if the housing falls short of expected standards, looking at how best to engage with landlords to raise the standard, and intervene to take enforcement action where appropriate.
Monk adds: “The private rented sector is very important in providing much needed housing however, we have a duty of care to residents and the council is committed to driving an improvement in standards. This is about finding new ways to identify properties where our intervention is most needed and then to engage with landlords to make sure they are aware of their responsibilities and helping them to ensure their properties meet expectations. We are here to help both tenants and landlords.
“This additional funding will allow the council to do more than just fulfil our statutory obligations such as HMO licensing and responding to complaints from those facing hazardous property conditions.”
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I didn't think we were allowed to say "tarring with the same brush" in these woke days!
This Councillor might find himself on the PC Brigade's blacklist!
£1 million! How do they spend so much and achieve so little! This may be a very valuable exercise but how can it possibly cost £1 million?
Well paid jobs for the boys
I'll do it for £950K. Bargain!!
Robert, you can’t up tar brush to paint anything else .
If the Council are doing their job and inspecting the HMOs as part of what the license fee is supposed to pay for they already know exactly what state the HMOs are in. They know the good landlords and the ones who may need a bit more 'guidance'.
The money may be better spent engaging with tenants and developing a guide on how to behave when living in a shared space. Things like cleaning, heating, ventilation, rubbish disposal, noise, reporting maintenance issues.
HMOs vary hugely and it is largely down to the occupants as to whether they are good or bad.
A couple of mine are lovely because that's how the tenants like to keep them. Another one is homely in a cluttered sort of way but is a very close-knit household with minimal movement so I'm not inclined to nag. Another one suffered badly when one occupant became depressed and just stopped doing anything. His housemates couldn't be bothered to help him, didn't see why they should do any cleaning or washing up if he wasn't going to and the general condition of the house spiralled.
It's a fine line between effective management and overbearing rules. What works perfectly in one HMO won't work in another one purely because the tenants have different attitudes.
Some are excellent at reporting maintenance issues, others aren't. How often do we turn up at a house and tenants say "While you're here, this broke a couple of weeks ago"? Why didn't they message us a couple of weeks ago and send a photo of what they're on about so we can turn up with appropriate tools or a replacement? We're not clairvoyant.
Cornwall has a big problem with alcoholics and drug addicts who don't work and cause trouble. If they went to work it would solve most of Cornwalls problems. This applies to places like Torquay, Morecambe etc. We seem to have open borders for people, drugs, counterfeit goods etc. And if course export of stolen goods, high end cars, drugs etc.
From local news today: "Cornwall councillors have called for more to be done to bring council houses up to a decent standard after it was revealed Cornwall has some of the worst council housing in the country. Cornwall Council owns around 10,300 homes which are managed by its own company Cornwall Housing Limited.
However, many of the homes are said to be in a poor state and one council officer admitted today that Cornwall has some of the worst housing stock in the country. Mike Owen, landlord services manager for Cornwall Council, laid bare the state of council homes in Cornwall at a meeting of the council’s economic growth and development overview and scrutiny committee yesterday."
But let's look at HMOs instead...
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