Council threatens to take control of landlord properties

Council threatens to take control of landlord properties

9:28 AM, 21st August 2023, About 9 months ago 33

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With the deadline approaching for its selective licensing scheme, a London council is threatening to take control of landlords’ property if they don’t apply in time.

Newham says its deadline to apply for a license is at the end of this month and landlords who don’t apply risk an unlimited fine for not having a mandatory license.

It adds they also face having control of their properties taken away.

The council says it will be stepping up its enforcement and inspection visits in September and will take action against any landlord with an unlicensed property.

Along with having control of their properties removed, landlords could also be facing a rent repayment order of up to 12 months’ rent to the ‘Council or their tenants’.

‘Our pioneering Selective Licensing scheme’

Carleene Lee-Phakoe, the council’s cabinet member for housing needs, homelessness and private rented sector, said: “Renters in Newham deserve to live in safe, well-managed and well-maintained homes, and that’s what our pioneering Selective Licensing scheme aims to ensure.

“I’m grateful to the majority of our landlords who have successfully applied for a license, and call on those who still need to apply to take action now.

“Our teams will be out and about in September to check for unlicensed properties, so I encourage anyone without a license to get their application in without delay.”

The last selective licensing scheme ended in February which saw 42,000 properties being licensed and 70% of these were subject to audits or visits.

The council found 2,620 licence breaches between 2018 and July this year and 387 fines of between £5,000 to £30,000 were handed out.

‘Process of taking control of properties away from landlords’

When Newham Council was approached by Property118 to explain the process of taking control of properties away from landlords it pointed us to the Shelter website.

That’s where there is an explanation of ‘Interim management orders’.

The site spells out:

‘Interim and Final Management Orders are to be used when the licensing regime fails. They allow the local authority to take over the management of a house in multiple occupation (HMO) where there is no fit and proper person available to manage it.

‘A local authority may make an Interim Management Order (IMO) to ensure that immediate steps are taken to protect the health, safety or welfare of occupiers and adjoining occupiers/owners and any other steps are taken to ensure the proper management of the house pending further action.’


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Comments

Mick Roberts

12:07 PM, 26th August 2023, About 9 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Suzy Clarke at 26/08/2023 - 11:50
That's it, they didn't realise there was/are so many good Landlords.

My very first conversation with head of Licensing in approx April 2018, he laughed & said
What, u get on with all your tenants? I don't believe it.

He'd come from the HMO side where arguably, there is more friction with 7 in one house sharing rooms & tried to install them same standards in normal houses to which we got some stuff dropped, albeit after ridiculous battles.

TMM

18:32 PM, 26th August 2023, About 9 months ago

This is a disgusting attack on the entire concept of commercial private business and ownership of private property. Licensing is just an additional tax and nothing less. It’s the useless local govt public sector misusing state power to steal from private business.

GlanACC

18:42 PM, 26th August 2023, About 9 months ago

Reply to the comment left by TMM at 26/08/2023 - 18:32
Having said that, there is a very good case to re-nationalise some businesses.

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