Newham Council, Licensing and Planning
As mentioned on a previous thread I got an outrageous fine and increase in license cost from Newham Council, however I paid it and I had to pay £500 for the license and a further £300 fine. Instead of a 5 year license they issued me a 1 year, so now I have to pay £500 every year! It’s going to end up costing me £2,800 to be licenced for 5 years as opposed to £500. It is a HMO license so I also had to adhere to many requirements to change my house.
That is only the start of it, 10 months later (this week) after changing my property to adhere to the HMO license and changing my mortgage to suit, the planning team came out and said I have to revert the house to a family home. Therefore losing my income and kicking out my tenants! They said although I have a license I also need planning, and said they don’t talk to licensing dept which is why they never asked me for it. So nobody told me this, they even came out and visited the place 6 months ago and said it was fine.
I am tied in with a 5 year HMO mortgage.
In parallel to this Newman Licensing have audited me and have been aggressively chasing information on property inspections etc. and sending me so many threatening letters. I use an agency and all above board so they have all the info they require, I had to call them up and show them the emails I sent before they backed off.
However it is now the planning dept that I am having the issue with and I do not want to let them get away with this, is there anything I can do?
Thanks in Advance.
Anthony
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Previous Article
Buying the freehold - last minute show stopper
Member Since September 2014 - Comments: 277
4:53 PM, 29th April 2015, About 11 years ago
Re suitable caption required for above picture. Shouldn’t that be two fingers? Only jesting!
Member Since October 2014 - Comments: 423
4:54 PM, 29th April 2015, About 11 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Jack Ass” at “29/04/2015 – 16:22“:
Hmm.
imposing financial penalties on the landlord because of the conduct of the tenant.
I wonder if this is beyond the law.
Even if it were, I guess it would take deep pockets and a long time to make legal challenges.
Member Since January 2015 - Comments: 23
8:06 PM, 29th April 2015, About 11 years ago
1) Complain (to Ch Exec). Be logical, succinct, factual, (not necessarily brief) and ask for specific action, or answers to numbered questions. Don’t expect them to reply in the same way mind! Follow up if the response is not complete.
2) Separate and specific complaint about woman attitude – smiling / laughing – some people just do that when they are nervous, but that makes them unsuited to a job involving giving bad news to people.
3) Prepare to complain to the local government ombudsman on grounds of maladministration if (as I suspect) you get nowhere with council.However OBM does expect you to have gone through the channels first.
Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 646 - Articles: 1
9:22 PM, 29th April 2015, About 11 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Anthony Sweeney” at “29/04/2015 – 13:44“:
hi
you will still need a license even if it is not an HMO as ALL rentals in LBN must be licensed. there are two types of licence, selective and additional. selective i think is the non HMO license.
Member Since April 2015 - Comments: 5
9:47 PM, 29th April 2015, About 11 years ago
I think I have a solution, I will post an update shortly. Thanks for you input..
Member Since April 2015 - Comments: 1
11:12 PM, 29th April 2015, About 11 years ago
I am a planning consultant based in east London and am aware of Newham’s policies. They brought in an Article 4 Direction covering the entire borough that prevented a permitted change of use from a single dwellinghouse to a HMO of up to 6 people. Your problem may be a result of this.
Member Since May 2014 - Comments: 149
9:35 AM, 30th April 2015, About 11 years ago
`Look how happy Mark Alexander was when debate organisers sat him next to Sir Robin Wales of Newham as he first revealed his landlord licencing plans. What do you think this caption should read?`
“I`m going to set the smoke alarms off when I light my invisible pipe & end this ridiculous meeting”
Comments: 11
11:17 AM, 3rd May 2015, About 11 years ago
“Bystander gives the thumbs up after man has his chopped off – for theft”
Member Since July 2013 - Comments: 357
6:26 PM, 3rd May 2015, About 11 years ago
Scandalous what are councils thinking
Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 3251 - Articles: 81
10:58 AM, 4th July 2018, About 8 years ago
Can you Landlords please sign this & forward to all your contacts.
A small hope, we have to try anything & everything.
I’m sure we not get 10k signatures, but the more Licensing & Govt start to see these things, who knows.
“Petition calling for a review of Nottingham City Councils Selective Licensing.”
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/223039
http://www.selectivelicensingtruth.co.uk/