Licensing Consultation in Southwark

Without a doubt they would be allowable expenses, though they still have to be paid regardless of whether a non-paying tenant may be in occupation and no doubt be in advance so still makes a significant impact. I would be very grateful if you could refer back to my posts above and answer my query? Many thanks.

Hi Yvette,

The standard is 8m and we have been using this for a while and it has been supported at tribunal. You can ask for the inspector to agree a deviation from the std. However I think this might be refused. I accept that this seems harsh bearing mind that the LA built this as a 3 bed. But the property was built as a single family dwelling so the occupant of the room (the smallest child of the family) would not have to have everything they owned inside the room.

We fully support the London Rental Standard and LLAS, so if any accreditation scheme is recognised by LLAS we will offer a discount. Not all accreditation schemes are equal in value so we have used an external benchmark for accreditation.

Not sure about the utilities question, why would different sizes of HMO pay utilities differently ?

Yes we ask for one bath in each HMO, if there is more than one bathroom, showers are fine for the rest. This for washing when the resident has mobility issues, is sick, or for children. It's very rare not have at least one bath in any tenure.

We only ever rent to single professionals and students, both of which tend to be in London for a year up to 3 and then move on, so a bath is not a requirement. I am referring to max 3 persons who share the whole flat between them (we do not ever rent individual rooms)

Therefore the utilties are paid for by the tenants in situ. This is vastly different to eg. a 6-bed HMO where trying to get 6 different tenants to contribute to pay a bill would be very difficult. It makes complete sense in larger HMOs for the utilities to request payment from one source eg. the landlord as people come and go so often. In our flats the tenants remain for one whole year, sometimes longer as I state above and pay their bills ongoing, just as I do at my home. Due to the economy saving measures we introduced (eg. new energy efficient boilers etc) we are told time and time again that this saves them money rather than having their rent rolled up into one.

Following on then all our young professionals/sharers love our shower cubicles versus a shower over a bath.

We have never had a request for a family to even rent one of our properties in the last 18 years we have owned these flats.... I am shocked that your "one size fits all" policy will deprive our market (young profs and students) from renting in Southwark at all.

Too polite Yvette surely FI-FO is more like it?

I could be forgiven for thinking Southwark John has been told by another higher manager not to answer the meaty questions posted by me and others previously but ignoring them won't make them go away. Enfield council tried the fingers in ears la-la-la "this isn't happening" routine and they're in the high court with egg all over their faces and a sunk housing policy.

Hallo John

I would like to clarify Section 7.3 of the proposed standards. According to this section, if the owner is absent long periods then he needs to appoint a local manager which will be responsible for the implementation of the licensing conditions. I believe elsewhere in the document there is the requirement for the appointed local manager to apply for the license.

If my understanding of the above requirements is correct, then an owner of a small 3-4 bed HMO who let's say is retired in France, or simply has to take employment abroad but still visits the UK a few times a year, will have to pay an estate agent to apply for the license AND to take on the risk of heavy fines etc ? This seems to be a very harsh requirement for the owners of small HMOs which can be easily managed even if the owner lives abroad but is in touch regularly and can fly home at short notice if needed.

I would appreciate clarifications. Thank you

Ho John

What is Southwark's estimate of how many letting rooms will be lost through the change in minimum room size from 6.5 sqm to 8sqm? I presume that you worked this out when you did the Impact Assessment.

How many people will be made homeless as a result? And how will that be addressed?

It seems very reminiscent of what happened last time round when Southwark attempted to enforce a minimum room size of 10 sqm.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/landlords-unite-to-victory-over-southwark-council-hmo-standards

Can you post links to the Tribunal decisions which have supported the determination, please?

Is the Council satisfied with the higher rents which will be the consequence?

Thanks

Matt

Reply to the comment left by "Matt Wardman" at "21/10/2014 - 05:14":

good luck with that Matt, as it stands Southwark won't release the full data set for ASB link/proof and that let us not forget it's the major foundation and legal reason they base the entire scheme on - re the room size impact assessment why not simply FOI them and see what they come back with? I suspect they'll block your request under some commercial confidentiality but you might be lucky, hey they might even admit they haven't done one or considered the fallout as it's got nothing to do with ASB or PRS LL's

Reply to the comment left by "Yvette Newbury " at "16/10/2014 - 17:54":

Hi Yvette,

In terms of the utilities question, if I understand you correctly, we don't have any opinion on how the utilities are paid provided it's clear who pays for what in the tenancy agreement.

I have responded to the bath question and if you disagree with our reasoning then I think you should respond formally with your reasons for changing the item.

On balance I don't think that our proposed space standards will deprive young professionals and students from living in Southwark. There will be an effect on some properties where a bedroom is below 8m2.

We can't draft a standard that is specific to your business model. We have though about this for some time and we have set standards that we think are reasonable. In the end what is a reasonable space standard ?

Anything below 6.5m2 is a Cat 1 HHSRS risk and so could not be let in any case. So we are asking for 1.5 m2 more than that. We have to take a view and that is hard if your smallest bedroom is 7.5 m2. Where do we draw the line, well we have to balance the commercial desire of the landlord against the welfare of the tenant and we think 8m2 is the smallest room anyone should live in.

If your child went to South Bank and was put in a room of 7m which had a narrow bed a small wardrobe and a choice between a desk to study on or any other piece of furniture you might see this differently.

Lots of people spend much more time in lettings now. Since U35's can only claim a room rate for LHA/HB its entirely possible that someone might spend 15 years letting a room. We can't tailor the the standard to every market and still keep it simple and balanced.

"We can’t draft a standard that is specific to your business model."

The council business case for PRS clearly isn't aligned with the property owners as seen from the above statement - i could be forgiven for thinking this flies in the face of the "come and sit down and chat with us we should all pull together don't try and oppose our well planned reasonable licensing scheme" etc etc

I note Southwark have imposed their own model standard to suit - namely the glass panel kitchen fire door in smaller HMO's in just a few streets in Southwark - as yet they have no approval from the LFB or any link to ASB reduction they can demonstrate - but hey whats not to like, this is progress if you're a decent landlord and we all want higher standards albeit these one's come at your cost.

Reply to the comment left by "Victoria Morris" at "20/10/2014 - 10:56":

Hi Victoria,

We are not telling landlords who should manage the property but someone has to be engaged and involved with the day to day running and delivery of responsive services required by property letting.

The most likely person to hold the license is whoever has day to day control over rent collecttion, repairs and management. I accept that this is not always 100% clear but someone has to stand up and take on the role of manager.

Modern IT allows you to conduct almost every part of the letting business anywhere you happen to be. This is except when you need to visit the property and see that what is going on there is what you think should be happening. No reason you can't get a sensible associate to do that periodically if the rest of the management is done properly. The need to be aware of what is going on in the property is to protect the landlord as well.

These itrms are intended to ensure that we have landlords who respond to requests for repair, action complaints and deal with the issues that arise in a reasonable time.

There is a problem with landlords who only visit periodically and do all the management and repairs when they visit, some do this once or twice a year. There are also landlords who claim to be away to avoid responding to repair or management requests because they don't want to deal with the issue.

If I had a let property I'd be keen to see that the place was in good shape, with the right number of tenants whose names are on my tenancy agreements and the neighbours are not compalining the whole time because of the nuisance coming out of my property. Because this is good management and protecting my investment not because someone has required me to do so.

The best landlords on this site are the proactive ones who get out and find out what is going on and then grip the problems before they get out of hand.