Westminster online tool encouraging HMO tenants to claim Rent Repayment Orders!
In a move designed to punish as many landlords as possible with crucifying Rent Repayment Orders of up to 12 months rent, the City of Westminster has launched a “Find out if you can screw your Landlord” tool on their website.
They are obviously using this ‘hook’ to get tenants to ‘grass-up’ landlords who have not paid their ‘licence tax’.
Cynically, It has everything to do with punishing landlords for not paying their licence tax and nothing to do with improving housing.
ALL LANDLORDS BEWARE. You can expect every council in the land to adopt this punitive measure to make sure you all pay your licence tax.
The new page on the City of Westminster website boasts:
“Tenants of some shared houses, known as ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation’ (or HMOs) are entitled to apply for a rent repayment order if their landlord does not have an HMO licence.”
We have created an online rent repayment tool so you can quickly and easily see if you are owed a rent repayment order.
A rent repayment order is a financial award decided by a tribunal, requiring a landlord to pay back up to 12 months rent to a tenant.
Payments are not guaranteed, but the amounts can be substantial.
Use our rent repayment tool to see if you can apply for a rent repayment order.
This will also verify if the property has a licence. If you are eligible, we will ask for your details in order to arrange a confidential conversation to discuss your situation and give you advice on how to apply for a rent repayment order.
Rent repayment tool – check your eligibility
We cannot take action directly on your behalf. Once you have spoken to a member of the team, we can refer you to a charity partner who specialise in helping tenants apply for rent repayment orders.
Affected by this? Landlord Licensing & Defence is here to help you
We help landlords every week who are being pursued for Rent Repayment Orders. Always £10,000s sometimes £50,000 or more.
Sometimes we are able to prove – against the Council – that they are wrong and the property did not need an HMO license sot here is no guilt.
Other times although the landlord is guilty of not having a licence, there are mitigating circumstances that we can use to negotiate the Rent Repayment down from 12 months’ rent to a far lower figure.
If you have this problem get in touch at once. You have very little time to put together a defence.
Contact us for help here [https://landlordsdefence.co.uk/contact]
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Government must U-turn again to help landlords
Member Since June 2013 - Comments: 3249 - Articles: 81
9:27 AM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
God work Phil keeping all Landlords informed & defence help should some Landlords need it.
No doubt Westminsters homeless numbers will go up next few years cause of their antics. Short term help to the tenant at the expense of long term pain for the tenant in terms of shortage of houses as another so many Landlords think I’ve had enough.
Member Since March 2015 - Comments: 1969 - Articles: 1
9:36 AM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
Grenfell???
Member Since March 2015 - Comments: 1969 - Articles: 1
10:48 AM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Luke P at 27/08/2020 – 09:36
Get your own house(s) in order first councils!!
Member Since August 2016 - Comments: 1190
11:13 AM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
Makes perfect sense. Tenant receives thousands of pounds for absolutely nothing, which they can spend in the economy. Or use to pay off any arrears, or maybe use as a deposit to buy a home. Reduces the homeless situation thereby assisting over stretched local authorities.
Member Since November 2016 - Comments: 227
11:55 AM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
‘Charity Patrner’.
Hmm, wonder who that might be…
Member Since October 2019 - Comments: 401
12:08 PM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
Our wonderful council issue fines up £30,000 – unlimited + 12 months rent repaid to tenant!!! That would finish me off! Imagine- homeless landlords and homeless tenants sharing the same doorway!!!
Member Since November 2016 - Comments: 227
4:27 PM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by LaLo at 27/08/2020 – 12:08
While Shelter ‘support’ them both.
Member Since March 2018 - Comments: 182
6:08 PM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
Am I missing something? Is this not a tool for Landlords too, so they can make sure their HMO Licence has been registered on the Council system? Most of the earlier comments seem to be by Landlords who might have failed to Register their HMO, which surely Property118 will not condone.
Member Since May 2019 - Comments: 18
6:57 PM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
if landlords have a licence registered then it’s not an issue – why the uproar ? we may not like what the councils are doing but if we comply as all professional landlords would do, then it doesn’t affect us. It’s possible some landlords may have ‘forgotten’ to do the necessary admin, but maybe better systems are needed. This will oust the ‘bad’ landlords who don’t care, never licence, or care about standards. It’s about time they were ousted as the rest of us are paying in reputation as branded as a bad landlords by authorities and the media.
Member Since June 2019 - Comments: 73
7:21 PM, 27th August 2020, About 6 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Peter G at 27/08/2020 – 18:08
Peter g, agree with your statement. If a landlord has done everything correctly then he has nothing to fear from this tool. The other side of the coin is that this tool can be used to weed out bad landlords who give good landlords a bad name and thus throw us all out to the wolves and we all just fall into the hands of organisations like Shelter who like to diss us.