Council Licensing scheme – Money maker?

Hi Blair,
This garbage is nothing new. I have posted about the scheme introduced in Liverpool. The Housing act 2004 Mandates a consultation before this revenue raising scam is imposed by arrogant bankrupt local authorities. They go through the consultation charade then introduce their wheeze.. In reality the consultation means nothing, its just a hoop they must jump through on the road to imposing this tax. This Conservative government is a disgrace for allowing such an abuse , but unfortunately there is nowhere to turn as the other bunch are mad Marxists who will crash the entire economy. The best landlords can do is abide by the law , but make the councils job as difficult as possible. Hold them to account on every minute detail. Ensure they abide by the letter of the law to the fullest extent.

It is all a rip off and will just put rents up again.
At present my BTL's have no requirment to have a licence.
If this changes,all the costs will be passed on to tenants,not just to cover the licence,but ongoing monthly charge added to rent.
eg if a licence costs say £500 per property for 5 years
I would pass on £50 per month ongoing,thus increase rent of £50 month ie £600 PA over 5 years =£3000 over 5 years
I need to pay extra tax on the rent increase too ,so although this seems hard,we only have this government to blame!

I have a clause in my AST which says that the rent is £xxx plus any fees or taxes imposed by local or central government.

I wonder how many councils would impose licensing if there was a cap of say £50 for five years? Perhaps councils like letting agents should be forbidden to charge any fees !!!

Croydon now has this landlord licensing scheme; £350 per 5 years if memory serves me correctly (unless you pay late in which case this fee is doubled).
Apparently it's to stop the rogue landlords. But of course the scheme will have the opposite effect; the good landlords will be punished because they will be the only ones paying the fee.

We're in consultation locally and asked the LA why they needed to bring licensing in.

They said because they can't find the rogue landlords to utilise the existing powers (they're absent or no address information is given on the Land Registry etc) and by blanket licensing an area they could easily spot those who didn't apply.

When pressed as to how they intend to find/fine those now easily spotted that didn't apply for a licence, they answered, "Using various methods."

You should have seen their faces as the realisation sunk in when the very next question was why are they not *currently* using these 'various methods' to find the landlords NOW and make use of existing powers.

It's all laughable.

Reply to the comment left by Ed Tuff at 06/11/2017 - 12:50
Erm.... try £750 per property in Croydon! Also if you apply late for the scheme you don't get 5 years, you get the balance up to the end of their 5 year scheme. So if you were 4 years late to apply you would pay the full amount for one year.

Reply to the comment left by Y L Newbury at 06/11/2017 - 13:17I applied early and paid £350 for each of my properties. You pay £700+ if you apply late (as far as I was made aware).

Interesting to find another Croydon landlord. Optimistic for the future?

Reply to the comment left by Paul Kaye at 06/11/2017 - 12:13
Do your Tenants know this breakdown? if they did perhaps there'd be some more voices in protest.

Can I suggest a monthly statement:

Your Rent: £600
of which :
Local Licensing: £50
Sec.24: £100
Income Tax: £75 - substitute your own figures
and anything else you'd be happy to disclose but certainly any/all taxes paid to Local Govt & Central Govt.

Reply to the comment left by Ed Tuff at 06/11/2017 - 13:23
Actually my properties are in Southwark but I watched what was happening in Newham and then Croydon realising it would be similar in Southwark. Virtually neighbours though!

It’s just another tax to pay Caesar....it’s worst than Rome.