HMO landlords could pass licensing fee on to tenants through higher rents

Could pass it to tenants?

Reply to the comment left by Amjid Ali at 21/08/2026 – 07:20
These people are insane …. “could pass it on?”
All costs in running a property go towards the calculation of rent… its as simple as that… unless maybe where a property has no mortgage.
The costs of
Mortgage
S24 (extra taxation)
Repairs
Insurances
All Licensing costs
Bills
Agents fees….. etc etc

Its a grift, Here in Northern Ireland we have had landlord licencing for years.
I have never seen the licencing system used for ANYTHING.
Its just more money for the council to waste on nonsense that nobody wants.

“According to Bolton council, in the past three years they have received more than 1,000 complaints about disrepair in rented homes, typically relating to fire safety, cold and damp and overcrowding.”

That statement says absolutely nothing about whether the homes were houses in single occupancy or actually HMOs and is a direct insight into the appalling abuse of power that can result from an inability to understand simple statistics and apply logic to a situation.

Also the council acknowledges that the majority of landlords and properties are operating to a good standard. How about NOT putting the financial burden so heavily on them and using some of the potential fines from rogue operators to fund enforcement.

These fees into four figures are excessive – landlords know what is reasonable as they have to buy in trades for inspections for gas and electrics. Lets say the £211 covers the inspection of the property – how the hell is the remaining thousand pounds per landlord justified for what is compiling an online database – nobody sent me a fancy gilt edged parchment I could frame when I got my licence from York council (who now charges considerably more than £1,211). Enforcement costs should fall on those flouting the rules.

£750 all in absolute tops. And these councils all cry crocodile tears for tenants being supposedly fleeced by “greedy” landlords.

With the government confirming more illegals will be sent to HMOs, it looks like councils see a lucrative gravy chain, funded by the taxpayer.

Some landlords may choose to pass on part or all of the additional costs to tenants via rent.

Some? Its a business cost so it gets passed on. Anyone who doesn’t is plainly stupid.

Not ‘could’, definitely will be charged the cost. No business simply absorbs costs, they are always passed on, or the business will fail. That’s the problem with the government and housing action/lobby groups, they want more legislation, hence more costs, but expect rents to drop. That can never happen.

Reply to the comment left by Keith Wellburn at 10:25
Not forgetting the licence fees are exempt from VAT where VAT registered trades must add on 20% for any work including mandatory inspections to give the invoice total for the landlord to pay.
Exposes these council fee levels as even more of an absolute rip off than would appear at first glance.

Reply to the comment left by Keith Wellburn at 21/08/2026 – 10:25
the point being the tenant complained and the council investigated. That’s exactly what should happen, so clearly the system works. The bad landlords are being dealt with.

“Good landlords will also benefit from rogue landlords being pursued and driven out of the market ensuring that everyone is operating to the same standards”.

Agree – but the SL process is not the way of doing this.

If a council succeeds in fining a LL for a problem with the property then surely this would open the door for a tenant to go after a rent repayment order as most of the ground work has already been done!