London council launches selective licensing regime

I have more licensed property than most and I cannot see any benefit to licensing from the tenants or landlords point of view. I could write a book about the contradictions and pointlessness of the standards the councils try to impose. I would suggest that any rational analysis of Housing problems will show it is the social sector that has most of the issues. This is conveniently covered up by, guess who? the biggest provider of social housing, the council itself who enforce licensing.

The only satisfaction I get, and it is not much, is that licensing is the beast that devours its creator in as much as it costs the council far more to administrative licensing than the bloated fees they charge. The extra cost of licensing diverts services away from tackling issues which affect tenants and has spawned the parasitical industry off rent repayment orders against landlords, who mostly do not realise that their property had to be licensed. The penalties are Draconian inasmuch as a landlord can be required to pay back 12 months rent for failing to license a property. A totally disproportionate penalty.

Jim HaliburtonTheHMODaddy

We have had selective licencing in Brent for 6 years now in the other wards and it has done absolutely nothing. Apart from the odd headline, “Landlord fined” there are no figures to prove any successes in licensed areas. In this 6 years, not one of my properties was inspected, including HMO’s. It is and always will be a licence to print money. For £600 a pop, you’d expect a yearly pie chart at least to stipulate where the money has gone along with successes in bringing rogue Landlords into line.

• Fery Lavassani
• 19 September 2023 14:16 PM

Inspections must be carried out by a HHSRS qualified inspector. There aren't many even around the country. Last year Liverpool City Council introduced selective licensing for twenty five wards within the city. According to the Council itself, "it will take 125 years to do all the inspections".

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Nick, don’t complain about inspections, some Borough’s only include one inspection in the fee, subsequent visits are chargeable, the fee for the girl with the clip board will be more than you can earn in a day.
Worse than that no matter how good you think your property is there will be things to do, they are not just going to walk in and out say everything is fine & dandy,
you can be sure the Tenants will have done something against your wishes but you’ll be liable, like cut a hole in the fire door for the dog that you didn’t want, also used as a weapon to keep LL’s out.

"like cut a hole in the fire door for the dog that you didn’t want"
has to be the comment of the week, I laughed out loud.

• John Bentley
• 19 September 2023 13:45 PM

You may laugh but I had a tennant cut the bottoms of the doors off so he could run hosepipes to water his drug plants!

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Another one cut vents into the fire door at sealed all the windows to recycle all the air with-in the house, no heat loss there although might suffocate for oxygen.
HMO’s have cost me tens of thousands and on going no value to me, now weighted with regulation’s and not enough hours the day slave labour.

It is all part of the increasing totalitarianism in this country. That reaches a peak in the Renters Reform Bill with the loss of the freedom to enter into a private contract in relation to your own property.

• George Dawes
• 19 September 2023 21:26 PM

I think I'll sell up and retire to the country

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