Running the Selective Licensing gauntlet?

Hello, selective licensing is now in place in an area I have properties in. The online application process requires me to pay for the Part A fee (as they call it) of £295.00 by credit card at the end in order for the application to be sent to them.

By having no choice but to complete the application online and having to pay Part A in this way, then means a ‘pre-authorised payment’ Part B (£405.00) is then automatically triggered after the draft licence is issued.

1. I have no way of knowing when this £405 will be taken
2. I have not ‘authorised’ this pre-payment at all
3. Once the draft licence is issued there is a 20-day ‘representation period’. I have been told, this is there if the applicant (and all other interested parties who are listed on the application) should have concerns over any additional information provided or if they would like us to consider a different occupancy value, for example where one room may have been below minimum requirements for 2 people by a small margin – in which case we would review the measurements and consider amending to reflect this.

To my mind, the automatic grab of £405 at this point is not correct as the licence is still in draft form (and is not a ‘successful’ application) until this 20-day period had lapsed. If this is still being processed then money can only be taken for this purpose. As there may well be fundamental changes that have to be applied to the licence (eg occupancy moves from 4 to 3 or 2 people for example.) The licence is not in its finality until then.

As a result, I should:

1. Not be charged Part B until after day 20 (see below Provision of Services Regulations 2009 (4))
2. The automatic pre-payment authorisation trigger should be removed from the initial application system as this is in contradiction to case law (see below)
3. It should be able then to pay by BACS payment for Part B at the point when the licence has been properly detailed and both parties are in agreement of such (see below Provision of Services Regulations 2009 (3)

The council have replied and stated: “A draft copy is, in essence the council’s way of stating we are prepared to issue a full licence under these terms, and therefore we can and have every right to source a payment at point of issuing this copy”,

But I feel this is in total contradiction to existing Case law-

R (Hemming, t/a Simply Pleasure Ltd) v Westminster CC [2015] UKSC 25; [2015] AC 1600:

· Part 1 – a fee levied at the point of application, to cover the costs of the scheme’s ‘authorisation procedures and formalities’, i.e. the costs of processing the application; and

· Part 2 – if the application is successful, a further fee to cover the costs of running and enforcing the scheme.

The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 also states that

(4) Any charges provided for by a competent authority which applicants may incur under an authorisation scheme must be reasonable and proportionate to the cost of the procedures and formalities under the scheme and must not exceed the cost of those procedures and formalities.

The act also goes on to state that

(3) Authorisation procedures and formalities provided for by a competent authority under an authorisation scheme must be easily accessible.

Anyone come across this issue before?

The Council in question has clearly bought an off the shelf SL application package from a company that provided the same to another council as they followed up with “Just as many other local councils who adopted this licensing scheme before we have done – evidence is widely available on other councils websites should you wish to confirm this”

Thanks,

Reluctant Landlord

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