Selective licensing schemes fail to improve standards and burden landlords with high costs

Don't get me started on Licensing, here's my reply to Nottingham Council Imbecile Selective Licensing scheme this morning & yesterdays email:

Thank you for replying.

I'm referring to your other more included email in this reply as XX & XX need to know why their job so hard & so many Landlords selling & not taking their tenants.

I haven't. I HAVEN'T. That''s my point.
I haven't provided them addresses, that's what I'm trying to tell you. Your pre-populated cr#p Nottingham Council website has done it. It does it on the payment page too. Told u this, Licensing doesn't listen. My mate used to design the website & said the Council never listened to feedback & the changes were easy to make.

Look at your box address.
I have NEVER stated High Street address Hucknall. On my 15 houses with the Letting Agent, the Letting Agent is IN ARNOLD. Your field has done this. Granted, I may not have seen it put it in & not deleted it, but sort out this cr#p website please. I told Licensing in 2018 it was cr#p. Licensing said not. Linda Woodings stood up in Dec 2019 & said Yes we admit there were some flaws with website. It's better, but still cr#p.

Why would I put TWO addresses in?

I don't want em processed this month. Nor do the tenants. Take 5 years if you like, we do not care. I'm making the point Licensing give us deadlines, but take 4 years to reply to a query to tenants.
I've got some category one hazards at my houses right now that's been reported to u where Nottingham Council in charge of tenant & Licensing done bob all about it.

So my point of contact is XX but someone else can write to me? I can't cope with this bulls__t. I'm selling the lot.

Just one address Please Helen the PO Box address. Ooh by the way the website also got addresses wrong for Council Tax that went to court & Judge chucked it out & said to Council Why don't u check things first.

Yesterdays reply:
I've just had this Codswallop off Nottingham City Council Selective Licensing.
And they wonder why Nottingham homeless bill is £8 million a year. I know Team leaders who have been in homeless 18 months. You a disgrace Nottingham Council.
I filled these License forms in a year ago. And you give me 21 days? For something that has no bearing on the tenants lives whatsoever but wastes their rent money on your imbecile admin.

My Reply at the top & extracts from the Council letter below.

XXX
I'm away. Please don't give me 21 days or else the catastrophic.
So you telling me this difference in address will result in not 'duly made'? What does duly made mean?
Will this make the tenants house any better?
And you want me to start a new application? Pay again I presume?
Do you want me to send this to the Media? I've BCC'd a few in if they want to take it up.

The address for all is
XXX

I've been telling you 7 years, you got a problem with Nottingham Council website that repopulates fields wrongly.
Show me where I have put the High Street address?
So u give us 21 days & yet u want another 6 months?
Have u any idea of the homeless in Nottingham?
What a load of Codswallop.
Don't grant me a License, perfect excuse to sell all my houses now instead of keeping em for the tenants.

Mick Roberts

Dear Applicant,

Please find attached a document requesting some additional information for your application for a Selective licence.
Kindly provide this/these document(s) and or any additional information requested at your earliest convenience but no later than 21 days.
We will put your application on hold until the information is received. If the 21 days are exceeded and we do not have a response from you, we may cancel the application, meaning you will need to reapply and your property would be unlicensed

Below are details of what is missing from your application and, as such, what you need to provide to us within the deadline given, failure to do so could mean that the application is not ‘duly made’ and will be cancelled.
This would mean property would remain unlicensed and a new application would be required.
Address confirmation for Licence Holder, Mr Mick Roberts.
We have received the below applications. The address for Mr Roberts on some of the applications is XXX and on others it is XXX , XXX

Please can you clarify which address is to be used for all applications received.
You should be aware that we will make a determination of your application whether you provide this missing information/documents or not. However, in the absence of what we have requested from you, the likelihood that we will not grant a licence is greatly increased. In that scenario, we could refuse to grant a licence for the property to operate as a Selective Licensing property

It’s just another way to tax us. Oldham council are no better, raised an issue with a neighbouring property, they did nothing.

Article ( by whom ? ) should read, instead of .... increased costs for Landlords, - Increased costs / rent for Tenants.
Business costs get passed on and are borne by the end - user. ( Tenant )
Needs a better Awareness campaign to Tenants in Licensing areas.

In June I received a letter from Oldham SL team, threatening me with criminal prosecution plys £30,000 fine etc, for not having an SL. For a property I do NOT own or have any connection to. Below is my response to them. And yes - the words Idiotic Self-Indulgent Nonsense were aimed at the SL team. No regrets. I did not even get an apology.

1. I would expect the originator of this communication to have done some basic groundwork, i.e. establish who the legal owner is. It appears that the council has failed to do this most basic level of due diligence.

2. I hold a license for a different property in Oldham - one I actually own. My email and contact number are therefore readily available to you. It would have been a simple (and polite) act of courtesy to contact me and inquire why this property is unlicensed, and would have taken considerably less time (time = taxpayers money) than writing and posting this threatening letter.

3. I understand that the council is desperate for cash but the contents of this letter are unacceptable. Have you checked whether the property is rented out? If so, is the landlord keeping it in good condition and is the tenant happy? And if so, why are you labelling the landlord a criminal without evidence? If you fine the landlord and make him/her bankrupt, what do you think will happen to the tenant?

I understand that we are going through a housing crisis. Unfortunately this is partly of your own making and you are now reaping the rewards of over a decade of anti-landlord policies. This letter is the perfect example of years of idiotic self-indulgent nonsense.
Good, dependable, hard-working landlords like myself are part of the housing solution. We are now becoming a collector's item.
Years of anti-landlord policies and vitriol have added to every landlord's running costs and they are now all leaving the sector in droves. The ones that haven't yet are passing all the costs of your policies to their tenants.

One day someone will join up the dots. But by then it will be too late.