Private address required for HMO Licence!

I don't do HMO, I know people who do and seeing the world they live in puts me right off. Living with police attack alarms and getting your tyres slashed is just too much stress for me.

The reply on these matters is typically don't take them, but from the other side even the crazies have to live somewhere 🙂

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "03/06/2014 - 20:36":

For the purpose of s.48 it can be any address in England or Wales.

On the other hand, my understanding is that it must be the actual landlord's address for the purpose of s.47. However it seems that providing another address is of no consequence for ASTs.

Article on the topic from the Painsmith blog:
http://blog.painsmith.co.uk/2013/07/24/whose-address-sections-47-and-48-revisited/

Thanks everyone for your input. FYI Officer caved in and emailed me back tonight to accept my displeasure in giving my home address and will accept my office address for the licence.

With regard to the 'what has a LL got to hide' is a ridiculous statement. I have my privacy and safety and my families safety to consider. I provide excellent rented accommodation but this is business and i prefer not to mix busines with my private life. As every LL knows, renting throws up 'situations' and i do not want any tenant knocking on my door. Where does the law on data protection without my consent come into this?

Reply to the comment left by "john kelly" at "03/06/2014 - 21:49":

Well done John, great result. I also started a discussion about this on the HMO Facebook group - see >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/housesofmultipleoccupancy/790398257646327/?notif_t=group_comment
.

ASTs are a little different, you must give a service address in the UK, that can be an agent etc.

However by law the agent must disclose your address on demand (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70). There are a number of tenant web sites that will tell tenants this, and even help them write the letter (http://www.unipol.org.uk/getmedia/2b7458e9-7c19-47d7-a9c7-8aae16976b37/5_3_2-Letter-requesting-details-from-agent.pdf.aspx).

And before you think, what about limited companies, they have that covered.

It looks to me like the act would apply to any dwelling.

Don't forget that if you take a deposit that, as part of the Prescribed Information, you legally have to provide your name, address, contact tel & e-mail. Last year's landmark court cases indicate you cannot hide behind agent's details any more

Reply to the comment left by "Chris Amis" at "03/06/2014 - 22:10":

Giving a tenant the legal right to ask to see the residential address of a single private landlord, or the directors and secretary of a limited company, is quite different from requiring the landlord to provide an address on an AST or an HMO licence when these documents are issued, which was the query originally raised by John.

I expect most people can understand the principle behind this right to see an address - there are bad landlords who hide behind c/o addresses, insist on payment only in cash, and are virtually impossible to track down when repairs are needed or if there is an area of dispute. Nevertheless it should be up to the tenant to use the legal remedies available to track down the landlord, not the landlord's responsibility to give away a private address, with all the possible risks that entails, and John was right to resist the official's demand for his address.

The 1985 Act does seem open to abuse though: what happens if the single private landlord goes abroad to live, or goes travelling for a couple of years, so she is changing address every few days? And we all know how determined individuals can hide behind layers of limited companies, or wind up one company and set up a new one the next day in order to evade creditors or aggrieved tenants, so the legal position of tenants is ultimately as weak or strong as anyone dealing with a corporate entity.

Similar risks apply to landlords too: try getting rent arrears out of a self-employed tenant, even if you have a CCJ against them - it is virtually impossible.

SInce when did HMO's get such a bad name, police alarms and slashed tyres, who the hell are they renting too. We've had one of out HMO's for over 7 years and never had any trouble with a tenant. If you rent to decent people then you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I had this out with Communities & Local Government (CLG) about 7 years ago when they bought the deposit protection rules in.
I have a PO Box for all my tenants. CLG wouldn’t allow this.

As some know, depending on which rental sector tenants one may deal with, I & Jonathon Clarke deal with the lower end, those with no deposits, don’t care about honouring the tenancy, do a bunk at a minutes notice etc.
Some very good people we have, but also a lot that don’t care about any rules whatsoever.

And as some may know, Landlords & tenants can have a fraught relationship. And before those that don’t know me & shout me down, I get on with 95% of my tenants, had some stay with me 16 years, many 10 years +, & have a 200 waiting list for my houses.
BUT there is still 5% that would stab you, shoot you, if they had half the chance.
This lower end sector, Landlord is always wrong, tenant is always right.
And one bad un slags u off, all their mates think u r bad too-Until u see em in Morrisons & put ‘em in picture that THEIR mate has smashed house up & not paid any rent-They then say ‘Kick the sl_g out then’. Two sides to every story.

So, if I have a disagreement with the barmaid & I think she’s short changed me & I’m not happy with her, does she have a sign above her head ‘This is my home address. If you have a disagreement with me, come to my house’.

If I think the petrol station has short changed me, do they have a sign saying ‘This is the cashiers home address if you’ve got a problem with her-Please visit her at 2am with all your mates & guns.’?

There has been stories in the past of Landlords being shot at home ‘cause tenant has known Landlords home home address.
And I do think a few more situations like this should be made public ‘cause if you don’t want tenants knowing your home address, you shouldn’t have to. But Government ain’t bothered, they don’t live in the real world. You can have Cameron’s address ‘cause he’s got ten coppers outside his every night.

So I do feel strongly you shouldn’t have to give your customers your home address. Landlord can know their address cause he has to ‘cause it’s his ruddy house. He has to do the repairs there. And quite often, he ain’t gonna’ be going round smashing HIS OWN house up.
And if have phone number & PO Box address, is there any normal sense common reason why tenant should know your home address?

Half my tenants do know where I live, but I ain’t doing business here. And about 15 years ago, when I did do business at home, they used to visit MY HOME at midnight on Xmas eve ‘Mick, my living room doors sticking, have to push it hard’-I kid you not.

Who decides who’s decent? Mark has done post on here before ‘Decent tenants for several years, then she just lost it’ We never know.

I am just curious to consider something.

The landlord has the tenant's address. Tenants have kids. They want their privacy etc.

Why is it okay for the landlord to know the tenant's address but not for the tenant to know the landlord's address?

I have read several news items where a landlord attacked a tenant so I believe it is wrong to suggest that landlords might behave differently to tenants. We are all just people. Some of us landlords, like myself, used to be a tenant!

As someone said earlier, the landlord/tenant relationship is a commercial and mutually beneficial one and therefore I am struggling to see why it should be one rule for one and one rule for another?

I am not debating the law. I am considering the fairness of this scenario.

Property is a people business and that means dealing with people who are strangers and all that that entails imho.