Is the Council request for information legitimate?

Hi all, I’m perplexed by a recent request for information from the council.

I’ve operated an HMO in Northampton for several years. It has valid gas, electric and EPC certificates, alarms, fire doors, etc. IMHO, nothing amiss with it. Some years ago, the LA applied an Article 4 direction to the area and I thus started an application to register it as an HMO.

However, some of the tenants left just before the first lockdown and, partly as a result, I withdrew the uncompleted application. Since then, it has been let only to the same two unrelated people. I told the council about this and they accepted my assertion that the property wasn’t being used as an HMO.

Suddenly, two years on, the council sent me a notice demanding S16 & S235 information about the property and tenants. When I called for an explanation, I was told they had visited the property twice and not gotten a response: no surprise if you cold call! My tenants say they haven’t seen any calling cards to indicate the council had visited and I’d not had any contact from them prior to the notices being emailed to me.

All this has left me questioning their motives and I’m wondering whether they should be taken at face value or is there something else I need to be aware of?

Y Lana