York council says it’s used its powers to protect tenants in four properties in the city, where landlords were not complying with housing licensing legislation.

Following two consultations in 2022, the council implemented an additional licensing regime in April 2023. This is for smaller HMOs in areas of the city with the highest number of HMOs.

The small minority of landlords who delayed getting the necessary licenses, were given advice and support to apply for them. 

As a last resort, the council issued Civil Penalty Notices in four cases: the council claims this was “to protect the affected tenants where four landlords failed to apply for the required HMO licence and were not complying with standards including fire safety requirements.”

The landlords have now been fined and a spokesperson for the council says: “The overwhelming majority of York’s landlords act well and responsibly, and we want to continue positive relationships between them and their tenants.

“Our responsibilities includes giving landlords good quality advice and information which, in turn, secures the necessary standards for their tenants. Where supportive measures to achieve compliance have failed, we have successfully used CPNs … We pride ourselves on fair and effective regulation which protects the public.”