A London council is consulting on another controversial landlord licensing scheme.
Barking and Dagenham council’s existing Selective Licensing Scheme has been applied to single-family homes since 2015. Throughout that time, the council has licensed over 17,000 properties and claims to have inspected over 8,000 properties.
Now a replacement Selective Licensing Scheme is being proposed, along with a new Additional Licensing Scheme to cover small HMOs let to two or three people and outside the scope of mandatory licensing.
The council is advertising the cost of licences on its consultation website but is already proposing to offer discounts for landlords based on what it calls “best practice”.
Silver compliance: Satisfactory rating from compliance audit inspection (property meets the standards when inspected). Discount - £200 off the Part B fee for scheme running costs.
Gold compliance award: Accredited landlord and Satisfactory rating from compliance audit inspection (property meets the standards when inspected). Discount - £250 off the Part B fee for scheme running costs.
A council spokesperson says: “Private rented properties have played a growing role in providing homes for our residents over the last decade and we want to make sure that landlords are providing good, quality homes for their tenants.
“These licensing schemes allow us to work closely with landlords to help them improve and maintain their properties as well as take action against anyone who fails to follow the set requirements.
“I’d like to encourage all private sector tenants, landlords, letting agents and everyone else interested to have their say.”
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Selective licencing is the worst money grabbing scheme that I've ever seen, luckily my local council do not do it.
When they do, it will be added to the rents and I will explain to the tenants why it's being added or I will just sell them.
Quick search shows that it's £900 per house, which nets the council £1.53 million pounds and they have only bothered to inspect less than 1/2 of them. It's just another money grabbing tax that affects people that can least afford it.
We know what theft is when we see it.
Simon: Those few words say it all, great post.
Theft is felt as well as seen!
Accredited is ridiculous it keeps expiring you have to keep jumping through hoops, up dating on the internet that I am not capable of doing.
I have attended & paid for all those Courses years ago and been Accredited a number of times even double because I was as accredited by 2 different Organisations but now expired again. They don’t have those Courses anymore it all seems to be internet based like everything else to collect the free money.
Gold Plated the best Landlords.
Silver Plated very good Landlords .
Brass Neck Plated is for Councillor’s.
Selective Licencing fees like all other fees will just be added to the rents jacking them up ever higher. But apparently thats great for renters just like landlords selling up is great for renters!
Of course you are right Punishing the very people they are, supposedly, trying to help Go figure
Selective licencing also reduces the available properties for young people who want to share. We recently had a lovely large 3 bedroomed flat, of the many applicants, we had mother and her 13 year old daughter, who wanted to pool resources with Mother's best friend. Unfortunately 3 people, 2 households - property would need selective licencing for that.
How is this helping house people who would not be entitled to social housing? There options are severely limited by selective licencing.
S S
In Scotland it's OK for two separate households or families to occupy a property, so your proposed 3 tenants would be OK in Scotland without any additional multiple occupancy licence.
I would be surprised if any other jurisdiction had stronger regulations banning your 3 tenants from sharing, so I would check that out?
On a more general point, I totally agree that the current licensing process is adding to homelessness unnecessarily by restricting flat sharing where it would make sense and the flat is big enough.
I have one large 4 bed flat with an HMO Licence, restricted to 4 sharing, who each pay £700 per month for it. Over 50 years ago, I shared a very similar flat nearby with 7 other male students and our biggest risk was food or alcohol poisoning. The rent, split 8 ways was so little I can't remember what it was, but it left plenty of the student grant for essentials, either purchased in off licences or in one of the many nearby pubs.
Nowadays we would need 2 similar flats or 4 flats without an HMO Licence for the same 8 students, and local hospitality establishments would suffer, as indeed they now do.
If they thought through their decisions they would do better Hold on less council meeting time meens less money for councillors !!
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