How can we get Selective Licensing Council to show where the money is going?
11 months ago | 2 comments
Landlords risk financial ruin over licensing lapses
12:01 AM, 13th May 2025, 11 months ago
15
Landlords who make a minor selective licensing mistake, such as missing a renewal notice, can be plunged into severe financial distress, with penalties reaching astronomical sums, one expert warns.
Local councils, which are intensifying their enforcement of selective licensing schemes, are imposing hefty fines that threaten landlords’ economic stability.
Phil Turtle, a property compliance specialist at Landlord Licensing & Defence, highlights the dire consequences of non-compliance.
He said: “Forgetting to renew a selective licence isn’t just a slap on the wrist – it can be a financial catastrophe.
“I’ve seen landlords lose everything because they didn’t have a system in place to track compliance.
“One missed deadline can cost you £105,000, and if you’re operating through a limited company, that fine could double to £210,000.”
Fines for landlord
In one case in Waltham Forest, London, a landlord faced a £66,000 penalty for failing to license a house divided into two flats.
Mr Turtle explains: “The council hit the landlord’s limited company with £16,500 per flat and then fined him personally as the sole director another £16,500 per flat.
“That’s £66,000 for a simple oversight – and now he’s forced to sell the property to cover the cost.”
HMO landlords face high fines
The stakes are even higher for landlords with Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), Mr Turtle warns.
One landlord, he says, who let an HMO licence expire, incurred a staggering £105,000 in fines.
The penalties included £12,500 for operating without a licence, £17,000 for violating HMO Management Regulation 4, £8,500 for Regulation 7 infractions and £12,500 for breaching Electrical Safety Regulations.
Mr Turtle said: “It started with a missed renewal while the landlord was on holiday.
“By the time the council got involved, the landlord was 18 months unlicensed, tenants were applying for Rent Repayment Orders, and the fines were unavoidable.”
Council targeting landlords
Mr Turtle says that landlords need to be aware that councils are shifting to a stringent, automated enforcement approach, with well-resourced housing officers targeting non-compliant landlords.
That means incomplete paperwork, missing certificates or unrecorded inspections leave landlords vulnerable.
He says: “The councils aren’t here to hold your hand.
“They’re a self-funding operation, and every fine they issue fuels their next investigation.”
Mr Turtle is urging landlords to adopt rigorous compliance systems to monitor licensing deadlines, maintain valid certificates and conduct regular inspections.
He adds: “This isn’t about scaremongering – it’s about reality.
“The laws have been in place for years, and enforcement is only getting sharper. Don’t let a forgotten date cost you your livelihood.”
Tags:
council enforcement, HMO Compliance., landlord compliance, landlord fines, property licensing penalties, property regulations, Selective Licensing
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Member Since November 2024 - Comments: 81
9:39 AM, 13th May 2025, About 11 months ago
The destruction of the PRS using tactics such as this is obviously intentional.
Member Since February 2018 - Comments: 627
9:48 AM, 13th May 2025, About 11 months ago
It’s communism being used as the weapon of corporatism,plus ca change,plus ca la meme chose.
Member Since July 2013 - Comments: 754
9:49 AM, 13th May 2025, About 11 months ago
Whilst I don’t condone lack of compliance by LLs, some mistakes (not necessarily in the subject case) are inevitable, and often minor, with no ‘harm’ arising.
What is so disproportionate is the discrimination in the treatments of landlords and tenants. It is OK for tenants to not pay rent, trash a property or fail to perform any of their responsibilities under the AST without any censure or penalty whatsoever – even by the Court – yet what can sometimes be a simple error by a LL can attract huge financial penalties, through fines and lack of support to recover arrears/costs.
Member Since July 2017 - Comments: 463
9:52 AM, 13th May 2025, About 11 months ago
Reply to the comment left by A Reader at 13/05/2025 – 09:39
Very short sighted. Killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
Member Since May 2015 - Comments: 2188 - Articles: 2
10:40 AM, 13th May 2025, About 11 months ago
Fine the landlord out of existence, then watch the ex-tenant sleep on the streets.
Member Since August 2013 - Comments: 788
11:53 AM, 13th May 2025, About 11 months ago
“They” must have been smoking a pot when they came up with those insane figures of fines, but they are digging their own grave when landlords leave this mined area discouraging them away, better to invest your money in something else with a lot less risk.
Member Since December 2023 - Comments: 1575
6:10 PM, 13th May 2025, About 11 months ago
Like it or not, landlords tend to be the people with investable cash.
Take the investors away and Labour will not fulfil their manifesto pledge to build 1,500,000 new homes – because there won’t be buyers.
Member Since January 2015 - Comments: 1435 - Articles: 1
9:42 AM, 14th May 2025, About 11 months ago
Landlords need to be on top of their documentation.
Sorry if this sounds harsh but …
There are many who aren’t, who use the excuse they employ a letting agent, who tbh haven’t a clue how to run their business, who rely on 3rd parties ie NRLA to get them out of trouble they should have got into in the first place.
Member Since July 2015 - Comments: 9
2:41 PM, 17th May 2025, About 11 months ago
Having read this post I’ve just realised I had 2 houses I was informed were in selective licensing areas years ago. I sent the paperwork in and set up Direct Debits.
I had no renewal notice and assumed the direct debit would just continue and had simply never give it another thought. I’m hot on paperwork but this just never occurred to me after I set up the DD.
Are they supposed to notify when the license is due to expire. They never even visited either property once.
Am I better to ring them Monday to sort.
Member Since July 2015 - Comments: 9
2:48 PM, 17th May 2025, About 11 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Paul Cummings at 17/05/2025 – 14:41
Am I going to get shafted if I go to the council
Would I be better just selling these 2 properties as one is empty with a tenancy just agreed,