Additional Licensing Nottingham The Nottingham City Council (NCC) Executive Board critique detailing the proposal for a widespread scheme of Additional Licensing for houses in multiple occupation and approval of HMO conditions and fees has been published on the NCC website. The Councillors will meet to consider and vote on implementing the scheme on Tuesday 17 th September at 2pm at the Council offices, Loxley House, Station Road, Nottingham. THE GENERAL PUBLIC CAN ATTEND THE MEETING AND EMPO WOULD RECOMMEND THAT LANDLORDS WHO ARE OPPOSED TO THIS SCHEME ATTEND Your Business Development Manager s observations It is regrettable the Council failed to invite EMPO and other organisations which support good landlord practice in Nottingham into the early stages of discussion regarding this scheme. Instead it has found it necessary to proceed without reference to us and promote a costly blanket scheme of regulation impacting all HMO landlords and not a targeted scheme focusing on the small numbers of criminal landlords. 1 Despite the Councils claim an extensive and widespread awareness campaign was undertaken to communicate the consultation only 659 people responded to their online survey. This represents 0.21% of Nottingham City population. After many requests the Council finally arranged a meeting with landlord representatives on the 18 th April 2013 to discuss the Additional Licensing
(AL) proposals. Regrettably by this time the consultation had already been published for 7 weeks. According to the critique 65% of respondents agreed to implement the scheme, 33% disagreed and 3% offered no conclusive opinion. The basic arithmetic mistake in this breakdown highlights another example of the lack of thoroughness employed by the Council around this scheme. The Universities support the scheme. The cost of a 5 year license is 910.00 per property, making it one of the most expensive schemes in the UK. A discount of 115.00 is offered to landlords who choose to become part of the Nottingham Standard, an overarching accreditation mark promoted by NCC. ( 40.00 discount for multiple applications) There are 3200 properties which will fall under Additional Licensing. The complaints data the council is relying on for the scheme is described as the best data available to it in order to evidence the need for a scheme The Council claims their data demonstrates there is a significant need to warrant an AL scheme. However according to their data, between 2010/12 there was a 50% reduction in the number of reported complaints against non mandatory licensed HMOs within the designated areas. The Council maintains they have and will continue to use a range of enforcement powers including AL to tackle criminal landlords. Under AL the Council maintains the onus will be on enforcement activity and working with partners to identify and prosecute offending landlords. Sadly since 2006 there has only been 24 prosecutions of criminal landlords The Council claim it is not possible to release Accredited landlords from AL. They did not provide any explanation to the reasons why it was not possible. An additional 22 Council officers will be employed to administer AL. An AL application refused by the Council will not result in a refund of fees paid. All electrical appliances will need to be PAT tested under AL. The license holder shall ensure that all refuse containers are returned within the cartilage of the property on the same day that they are emptied by the council. 2
NCC claims the decision to implement the scheme was not predetermined. However in a document presented to Councillors on the 18 th December 2012 referencing AL, it states the following. The Council is proposing to implement an additional licensing scheme. The predetermined decision clearly makes a charade of the consultation and is extremely disrespectful of the views expressed by its participants. For More information on the document detailing the proposal please visit: http://open.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/comm/download3.asp?dltype=inline&file name=58017/executiveboardreportadditionallicensingfinal.pdf PRESS RELEASE TENANTS ARE THE REAL VICTIMS OF PLANNED ADDITIONAL LICENSING SAYS EMPO Tenants will soon be subject to substantial rent rises making rental property simply unaffordable when Nottingham City Council implements a costly additional licensing scheme next month warns the East Midlands Property Owners (EMPO) association. Professional landlords who want to rent their houses out to three or more unrelated people known as Houses in Multiple Occupation will have to apply for an additional license. It is estimated that this will affect over 3,500 homes across the city. The new legislation will require these landlords to pay a hefty licensing fee, at a breathtaking 910 per property and a re-license fee after just five years of 830 one of the most expensive in the country. While Sheffield, a city with a similar number of licensable properties for example, costs 750 per property with a re-licensing fee of just 430. In addition to the cost of applying for the license, any inspection undertaken may result in an enforcement order to upgrade the property which could run into thousands of pounds and yet be totally irrelevant to the 'type' of tenant living there. 3
Giles Inman, Spokesperson at EMPO, said: This scheme will be most damaging in the long run to the very tenants it was designed to safeguard as the increased costs will ultimately fall on the tenants in the form of higher rents. It has the potential to increase homelessness for those on benefits at a time when the city is already experiencing a housing crisis. Recent statistics from the Office for National Statistics state, city residents have the lowest household disposable income of anywhere in the UK. The average income per individual householder after tax, but including benefits, is 16,034 a year. In Nottingham it is just 10,834. Landlord and EMPO member, Roger Lancaster said: I can t see how additional licensing is going to make any difference to tackling anti-social problems such as bins on the streets, house disrepair and noise. The overwhelming majority of landlords are law-abiding, while it s just a small minority that the licensing is targeted at who are unlikely to register in the first place! Anti-social behavior would be far better addressed with the powers currently available to Nottingham City Council. Inman continues: We believe therefore, that rents and evictions in Nottingham will inevitably rise as professional landlords have no choice but to spread the additional cost of licensing across their property portfolios, or re-market their properties to fewer tenants to avoid costly licensing. City tenant, Luke Scott, said: My landlord has told us he s selling up due to the costs additional licensing will bring. I have a tenancy agreement and copies of the current gas; energy performance and electrical condition certificates. The reasons he gave us was that he s fed up of being penalised by the city for being a professional landlord. For more advice on property licensing and its implications please visit www.empo.co.uk. 4
ENDS For further information please contact Giles Inman, EMPO at 0845 094 0386 NOTES TO EDITORS Based in Nottingham, EMPO is the largest landlords association in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. It represents professional landlords with residential property to rent in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire. East Midlands Property Owners seeks to promote sound management and acceptable standards of accommodation in the private rented sector. www.empo.co.uk 5