Landlord fears ‘prison sentence’ over council’s selective licensing application process

Landlord fears ‘prison sentence’ over council’s selective licensing application process

9:13 AM, 14th February 2024, About 3 months ago 25

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One landlord says applying for a selective licence with his council’s online system is a ‘complete waste of money’ which could see him facing a prison sentence and making all of his tenants homeless.

Mick Roberts, one of Nottingham’s largest landlords to house benefit tenants, told Property118 that every time he has tried to apply for a licence online the website is down.

He said so far, he’s only been successful in applying for one licence and the online selective licensing scheme is causing misery for landlords and tenants.

Mr Roberts said: “I am going to prison, getting fined £570,000 and hundreds of tenants will be homeless because Nottingham City Council’s selective licensing website is down again.

“It’s a complete waste of money when we have Universal Credit enhanced reviews to do for tenants.

“What happens if the tenants don’t get paid or is licensing more important to the council?”

It’s not working

Mr Roberts told Property118: “I have 19 houses in the Nottingham area which are covered by selective licensing.

“However, I have only got one done as every time I try to do it on the website it’s not working. I tried again this week and when I did the page it failed 30 minutes in.”

Mr Roberts says the council needs to think of a better system.

He explains: “You would think the council would design it so that we could do all our houses in one go at the same time. They’d get in more money and licenses quicker.

“Instead, I have to do all houses individually even though 98% of the questions are just repeating the same thing. Why do I have to submit my driving license 19 times for each house?”

Previously, a Property118 investigation revealed the alarming figures of homelessness in Nottingham with selective licensing being blamed.

That came after Shelter revealed that 2,700 people across Nottinghamshire were facing homelessness last Christmas – including 1,340 children who are stuck in temporary accommodation such as B&Bs.

When approached by Propery118, regarding the selective licensing online system Nottingham City Council did not comment.


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Comments

Mick Roberts

7:00 AM, 15th February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 14/02/2024 - 16:14
Lot of Local Councils round here are copying the same awful format.

JB

17:08 PM, 17th February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 14/02/2024 - 15:41
That sounds exactly like what the post office said about Horizon

philip allen

17:11 PM, 17th February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 14/02/2024 - 15:41
But Mick has previously stated that he had two responses from the council saying that there had been problems with the system on each occasion. Where does that leave your 30 years of 'knowledge'?

GlanACC

17:11 PM, 17th February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by JB at 17/02/2024 - 17:08
There were never any bugs in the software that I have written (and if you believe that pigs can fly). ALL software has a bug in it, you just might not have found it yet.

Mick Roberts

5:38 AM, 18th February 2024, About 3 months ago

Reply to the comment left by philip allen at 17/02/2024 - 17:11
Glenn is winding us up. We all got to have some sarcasm in our lives otherwise we;d go nuts.
Like with Licensing. It was plucked out of thin air. We think What? I've got new boiler new kitchen. I don't want house any more, only keeping it for tenant. And u want to charge me £900?
I now think Screw u then, I'm better off for it. You've almost doubled our rents in 6 years. Yes u have stopped me selling but those I did want to keep, I no longer have expensive refurbs when tenant leaves as you've stopped them leaving. Let's take a positive out of a negative & shrug our shoulders & yes sale is delayed, but we still earning.

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