The National Landlords Association (NLA) is claiming a victory for landlords in Liverpool after gaining two significant concessions from Liverpool City Council (LCC) in the run up to the launch of their city wide licensing scheme.
Although the council has refused the NLA’s request to postpone the launch of the scheme – due to go live on 1 April – it has taken two important steps to ensure that landlords in Liverpool are not put at risk.
After pressure from the NLA last week the council made an offline application form available, alongside its existing online process which the NLA had warned was unlawful. The council initially stated that the fee for processing offline applications would be higher than online applications.
However, after further pressure from the NLA, the council has declared that landlords will not be charged a higher fee for processing offline applications. The council has yet to state what the fee will be.
Richard Lambert, chief executive officer at the NLA, said: “These two concessions from LCC represent a significant victory for landlords in Liverpool.
“The council has changed its original process to make it possible for landlords to apply for a licence using its offline process, and has scrapped its intention to charge a higher fee for using this route.
“We are still concerned that LCC’s online registration form is unlawful and places landlords at some degree of risk, so our advice remains that landlords should avoid that route at all costs and instead download an application form to be on the safe side.
“The full application form was only made available last week, and we think it would be fairer to postpone the scheme’s launch to give landlords time to complete their applications. However, on the advice of our lawyers, we will not press this point further.”
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