An interesting article in Inside Housing gives the not entirely unexpected news that Local Authorities are finding it difficult to cope with all the licensing applications they have received. Indeed it appears that some of them have not issued any licenses at all yet.
A survey of 10 Councils by Inside Housing showed that 6,380 applications [...]
Tag Archive: local authority powers
Councils in crisis with HMO backlogs
Licensing lemmings
On my researches on the internet I keep reading about how landlords are selling up to avoid licensing. But is this really the case? When speaking this afternoon to Dave Princeps, Operations Manager at Camden Environmental Heath Section and Chair of the London Landlord Accreditation Scheme, I asked him what he thought about [...]
Doing the Q&A
I did my Q&A this morning. This is something I have been doing for years – ever since my very first Landlord-Law site, I have (more or less every 14 days) answered ten questions emailed to me by readers and put them online.
It is surprising how consistent the types of questions are. Some [...]
More problems with HMO licensing
It looks as if the additional administration associated with HMOs is putting landlords off landlording. A survey by RICS, reported here finds that landlords are either selling up or are just letting to three or less people, in order to avoid licensing.
Which would mean that although licensing is cutting down on rogue landlords, this [...]
An uneven playing field for landlords
The new HMO licensing regulations are now effective and the three month ‘grace period’ has now ended. Landlords who have failed to obtain a license face fines of up to £20,000, plus risk tenants applying for rent repayment orders while being unable to evict them via the section 21 procedure. But have the [...]
South Tynside Council gets tough on rogue landlord
When a South Tynside landlord tried to evict his tenants rather than get an HMO license he was asking for trouble. And he got it.
When one of his tenants applied for re-housing the Council realised his landlord was acting in breach of the law. The Homelessness Team alerted the Environmental Health Service who [...]
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Two more bad landlord stories
Landlords may moan about the new HMO licensing rules, but two stories which have come my way recently show that there are still bad landlords out there.
Firstly, this report on Youillscar Mohammed a Landlord in Glasgow who not only let out HMO properties without the proper fire precautions, but asked tenants to lie for [...]
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