Oxford council is proclaiming its citywide licensing scheme as a success - and claims it is processing more than 10,000 licence applications.
The all-city scheme came into effect on September 1 with a three month grace period - meaning all privately rented homes in the university city now require a licence.
The early bird period ended on 30 November and a standard fee of £480 for a five year licence now applies during the first year of the scheme. A higher rate fee of £1,100 will apply from September 2023 unless a home is newly rented within 12 weeks of the date of application.
Landlords and agents made 5,893 complete licence applications during the first three months. The largest letting agents also submitted details of a further 4,200 homes during this period.
This meant that the early bird period accounted for 10,093 licence applications – considerably more than the 7,500 applications the council was targeting.
Before September this year only HMOs in Oxford required a licence to operate, though these make up less than 15 per cent of private rented homes in the city. Now, Oxford is the only council in the country requiring a licence for all private rented homes.
The council says it will begin looking for unlicensed homes from January 2023 - that’s just next week - and landlords and agents may then be at risk of enforcement action. The council can issue financial penalties of up to £30,000 and the courts have the power to impose unlimited fines for unlicensed homes.
“We’re dealing with more than 10,000 licence applications and that’s great news for tenants and the majority of responsible landlords and agents. If you’re a landlord or agent who hasn’t applied yet you’ve missed the early bird but don’t miss the boat. Everyone should have a decent home and your tenants deserve the confidence of knowing that theirs is safe, in good condition and well managed” says Councillor Linda Smith, cabinet member for housing.
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Wow, total theft plain and simple. The one thing that is a guarantee, the council tax in Oxford will not drop a penny 💰. The money will be filtered away to secret council accounts.
It’s a roaring Success for Oxford Council robbing the Private Rented Sector filling their pockets, it’s legalised robbery with no input whatsoever of their own well done keep the brain wash going.
£480. X 10’000 = £4’800’000.
or wait until September
£1’100. X 10’000 = £11’000’000
What Planet are they on ?
Where’s Robin Hood
I'm surprised Norwich city council hasn't come up with this one yet, they are very left wing greens / labour, I expect they will at some point
He’s still working with Nottingham council on their next robbery scheme. Be patient he is assisting Oxford via Zoom meetings.
This is only part of the expense add another at least 3 time that to the cost of compliance, or did you think its just a matter of Applying for a license.
So every Borough in the South East / Greater London has taken several millions (each) directly out of the pockets of Private Landlords, then have the cheek to Complain about them.
How does this benefit the tenants? If they have a decent landlord, it won't make any difference, except the rent might go up, and if they have a rogue landlord, they won't sign up to the scheme so still won't help the tenants.
Not only that John but good tenants normally have good landlords already, rogue landlords cater for the rogue tenants .
Benefitting the tenants is not the name of the game… it does benefit the council 💰 💵
The Article says Oxford is the only Council in the Country to have Licensing for all Private Rented Property.
Where are they getting their information from, without even checking I know Ealing has Borough wide as well.
The point everybody is missing here is that Oxford Council is going to totally fail with its administration of this scam , sorry scheme, just like Croydon and Liverpool have. They will take months, if not years to issue licences, inspections by council staff will not happen or will be waiting years to take place. Croydon have applicants from 2019 that won't get the property inspected until 2027. Yet another public sector farce in the making.
I expected nothing less, the great public sector incompetence. 🤠
John my friend they have a Plan for that as well they are not going to miss out.
So unlike Previous Schemes when you paid the full Application fee up front, some Councils now take 30% of the fee initially with the application and you wait for the license to be ready for issuing then pay the other 70% prior to receiving the license, maybe a year or more, you won’t get fined as long as you made the Application which is big of them but make no mistake you will be paying and in full.
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