New licensing schemes came into force in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham yesterday.
An additional licensing scheme targets landlords of all HMOs. A selective licensing scheme is for landlords of all other types of property.
Cllr Laila Butt, cabinet member for crime and enforcement, said: “We have implemented the licensing scheme because of bad tenure and because Barking and Dagenham residents deserve the best.
“Our private sector has grown by at least 47% over the past five years.
“We have some very good landlords who rent homes of a high or good standard.
“However, there are a number of landlords who own poorly managed properties. This means they are a risk to some of our most vulnerable residents including children who may be living in unsafe properties. It is our duty to protect them.”
Comments (2)
It is all one sided, there is no protection from bad tenants. Where we are on-line (wait for it) managing agents are banned under the HMO rules as they have to be sited in the town with an office. AND there is even more regulations coming if labour get in.
Yes, and those "very good landlords who rent homes of a high or good standard" are still going to have to fork out hefty amounts in licensing fees, as well as fill in extremely lengthy license application forms and, quite possibly, carry out unnecessary improvements to their properties. The definition of an HMO is wrong anyway. It should not capture, for example, 3 individual people sharing a 2 or 3 bedroom property where they live as a "family" would live, and on a joint tenancy. There is a vast difference between this scenario, and the landlord who chooses to rent out every room in the house as a bedsit to people who do not know each other and who all have separate tenancy agreements. That is an HMO. Easy money for the councils, but a diabolical rip-off for landlords. In the longer term, the net effect of this will inevitably be that more and more landlords strive to stay out of the HMO category, thus reducing the amount of property available to tenants who are not a family or no more than 2 individuals; and of course this is very possibly going to push rents up yet further in the "sharer" sector.