The HMO regulations and mandatory licensing was introduced a few years ago now (April 2006) so Councils have had a while to get used to it. It looks like we are beginning to see more Local Authorities applying for extra licensing, for example the HMO licensing in Cathays Ward in Cardiff which I posted on last month.
Is this your experience? And if so, do you think that this is really going to solve the problem? Do you think that Council’s already have enough powers under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), and that the problem is really more one of Councils not having enough manpower? Or do you think that extending the licensing regime is essential, because it means that the bad landlords don’t get away with it, as all landlords have to be inspected?
I would be interested to hear your views.
Related posts:
the “HMO licensing in Cathays Ward in Cardiff ” got me a 404 error
plus there is a “Oh no! Comluv had an error with your feed, see message below!” that I don’t understand.
I have amended the Cathays Ward link – thanks for pointing that out. Not sure what happened with the commentluv plugin – if other people experience the same, I may delete it.
But what do you think about HMO licensing?
Since writing this post, I have seen this post on selective licensing from the excellent Pain Smith blog which you can read here: http://painsmith.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/selective-licensing/