A London council is telling landlords that if they don’t apply for a licence in the next nine days they face unlimited fines.
A statement says Newham landlords have until the end of August to apply for a mandatory Selective Licence “or risk an unlimited fine or having control of properties taken away.”
The latest Selective Licensing scheme started on June 1 and the Labour council now says it will be stepping up its inspection and enforcement visits throughout September “to find and take action against unlicensed properties.”
Landlords without licenses can face a financial penalty notice of up to £30,000 or an unlimited fine from the court. And the council adds: “They could also have control of properties removed and be ordered to repay up to 12 months’ rent to the Council or their tenants.”
A council spokesperson says: “Renters in Newham deserve to live in safe, well-managed and well-maintained homes, and that’s what our pioneering Selective Licensing scheme aims to ensure.
“I’m grateful to the majority of our landlords who have successfully applied for a license, and call on those who still need to apply to take action now.
“Our teams will be out and about in September to check for unlicensed properties, so I encourage anyone without a license to get their application in without delay.”
Newham’s last licensing scheme, which expired at the end of February 2023, saw 42,000 properties licensed – of which 70 per cent were subject to officer visits or audits.
From 2018 until July 2023, more than 2,620 breach of licence investigations were conducted and 387 financial penalty final notices were issued, with fines between £5k,000 and £30,000.
A total of 6,447 enforcement letters were sent.
The lengthy council statement continues: “Selective Licensing is the only proactive legal tool for councils to visit and check that privately rented properties are well managed.
“Newham uses it to help improve housing repair standards and fire precautions, tackle anti-social behavior and keep residents safe, as well as ensuring that responsible landlords receive support and are not undercut by unscrupulous landlords.”
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Useless parasitic scumbags..
“ saw 42,000 properties licensed – of which 70 per cent were subject to officer visits or audits.”
Mmm.. I suspect almost all had an “audit”. That meant checked we had gotten paid our fee. Didn’t bother with anything else.
I left Newham and sold my modern flat rather than rent it out under this scumbag council that does anything they can to screw money out of property owners in their borough.
Is it any wonder that landlords are selling up!
Money for the council’s coffers. That’s all it is. Spent - hmm well no one will know.
Licensing being the money grabbing pile of very largely ineffective red tape that it is, will simply encourage more landlords to leave.
Will the ‘penny ever drop’!
last year Liverpool City Council brought selective licensing for 25 wards in Liverpool. Obviously these properties must be checked by HHSRS qualified surveyors. According to the city council itself, due to the shortage of surveyors, the task of inspecting all the rental properties will take "125 years".
Thieving scum. 💰
When you read the story on the BBC about how councils are all heavily in debt you understand why they use SL to fund their housing depts. Central Govt needs to fund councils sufficiently to do more than just their statutory duties otherwise they have no choice but to do dodgy business deals & raise local taxes however they can.
Councils get much more in real terms for doing much less than 30 years ago.
Compare your Council Tax now and 30 years ago and how what you get has diminished.
Like other incompetent managers in the NHS and other public sectors, senior Council management are grossly overpaid with no sanctions for incompetence.
Councils should not employ any service providers directly but sub contract all services to private sector companies bidding for the work on fixed term contracts.
Yes Robert. There’s no competitive spirit or ambition in Councils. No sense of duty to do a good job. It’s all do as least as possible, get paid, take your generous holiday allowance, take your ‘sickie’ allowance and look forward to your fat pension.
This and epc garbage will be used to take compulsory purchase properties off landlords
You’ll own nothing …
How can a License that was designed to be selective , Be allowed to be manipulated by councils to cover whole areas . The original safe guard was supposed to be permission from the government .
What evidence of proof of wholesale anti -social behaviour by Private renters or slum conditions is put forward to obtain Gove`s Backing .
Probably very little
The Council threatens to take Control of Landlords Property so what’s new.
Licensed or not this is the purpose of THE RENTERS REFORM BILL to take Control of Landlords Property that’s clear enough.
That’s why thousands of Landlords are selling up attacked from all aspects of lettings not least loss of Control which means loss of Ownership.
It’s not a War on Landlords it’s a Special Operation.
Very well put Michael!
Everyone in the whole of the UK knows that the trigger points for anti- social behaviour the entire length of the country are on estates where the Landlords are either the local council or the Local housing association, and it would also seem that according to recent instances reported in the national press that it is also the local councils and local housing associations that manage some of the very worst condition properties in the UK, so bad that some of their properties even lead directly to the death of some of their tenants, there are also cases where families of six are squashed, into living in a one bedroomed property, all caused by extremely poor management.
If councils are so poor at being Landlords, how the hell do they have the audacity to request extra powers to take over the management of private properties?
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