Humber Landlords Association lose High Court battle
The Humber Landlords’ Association (HLA) supported by the RLA and NLA has unfortunately lost its High Court battle with Hull City Council.
Hull City Council is the only authority in the UK to implement a policy scrapping an informal improvement notice procedure, replacing it with a formal notice which means that should a tenant report an issue at their property, the landlord will immediately be charged a minimum fee of around £250, for minor issues which would usually be managed quickly and easily.
Before the case was heard, Danny Gough, HLA chairman said: “The reasons given by the council for this change, which ignores national guidance applicable to all types of enforcement action by councils, is to protect tenants from eviction in retaliation for them requesting repairs.
“The council produced no evidence to justify their claim that this is a problem in Hull. They do not even keep records of cases where this happens. In any case, HLA told the council that if there are real concerns in a particular case that a landlord might evict a tenant, then taking formal enforcement action is appropriate.
“Penalising responsible landlords is bad practice on the part of the council. Trying to generate a fee income hurts the tenants of responsible landlords. Inevitably the cost is passed on as part of the rent or money that will now have to go to the council, could be spent on improving properties in the city.”
Hull Council’s portfolio holder neighbourhoods and housing, Cllr John Black, said: “We see the misery caused on a daily basis by bad landlords. Inadequate housing conditions have a huge impact on the health of families and children living in this city.
“Whilst the vast majority of private landlords provide good quality properties that are safe, legal and decent we have a duty to protect residents from those that do not and welcome that the High Court has today ruled in our favour to enable us to do this.”
Click Here to see the original article “Humber Landlords’ Association taking Hull City Council to the High Court”
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Chancellors's Spring Statement - Landlord Summary
Member Since July 2013 - Comments: 205
11:04 PM, 16th March 2019, About 7 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Chris Daniel at 16/03/2019 – 22:42
May be we ought to publicise the gooduns more so the baduns know who they can learn from.
Everybody acknowledges that rouge LLs are the minority and that majority of the LLs are good ones. Surely we dont want a situation where 99% of the LAs give the rest a bad name.
Member Since October 2013 - Comments: 1020 - Articles: 47
12:17 PM, 17th March 2019, About 7 years ago
“Stop indulging councils over rental licensing and local schemes”
https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/features/2019/3/stop-indulging-councils-over-rental-licensing-and-local-schemes
Member Since May 2016 - Comments: 1570 - Articles: 16
9:55 PM, 17th March 2019, About 7 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Dave Richmond at 14/03/2019 – 12:22Dave,
Is this the kind of Tenant Hull is seeking to support ?
If not, What is Hull’s policy to actually help prevent this ( or is it only Landlords you seeking to pursue, because there’s no money to be had from tenants like this )
Reality is though, that Tenants like this and the resulting damage, are keeping other worthy tenants from occupying such property.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/17/tenant-from-hell-evicted-after-causing-25000-in-damage-8916300/amp/
Unless your a landlord who’s had to deal with this – you’ve got no comprehension of the problem landlord face, worse still – believe what they say.
Member Since May 2016 - Comments: 415 - Articles: 52
8:52 PM, 26th March 2019, About 7 years ago
To all Hull Landlords. Even though you may not be members of the National Landlords Alliance, we strongly advise under no circumstances rent to benefit tenants. Let Hull Council deal with this problem. Dis invest . Leave the Market , look at equities or invest overseas. Pull out of Hull now. If you must stay in the rental market, do not rent to tenants on benefits.