The latest battleground for letting agents and landlords opposed to council selective licensing schemes appears to be Doncaster.
A consultation process is ongoing until late September with the local authority following a now-familiar route saying that licensing will give benefits to landlords by
reducing anti-social behaviour, improving the reputation of the private rented sector, making available support and advice from the council and - to the surprise of many - a claim that there will be shorter voids and lower tenant churn'.
The licences will be £500 for each rented property.
However, Carl Agar, the local National Landlord Association representative, says the scheme will move problem tenants elsewhere rather than tackle the issue.
It is blatantly not the solution to the problems we have in our communities and it is wrong for the local authority to mislead the public into thinking they are addressing problems which they are clearly not. Landlords can barely afford to run properties of this nature in this area as it is he says.
We understand the issues but they have failed to engage with the sector before jumping to poorly thought-out solutions.
The local area has been the focus of protests by the English Defence League against some migrant tenants.
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Comments
I have been involved with property licensing in a London borough and that scheme was also sold on the basis that it would prevent anti-social behaviour. This is not the case and when I have had issues with anti-social behaviour at properties that we manage, the councils response was for the tenants to call the Police. They did not deal with the real issue and were more interested in establishing that we had the appropriate documentation to satisfy the conditions of the licence.
I have been watching this problem slowly raise its ugly head for some time.
1.) Two things stand out:-
It is proposed by labour councils who always seem to be the people who create and run depressed areas. (Yes I know the Tories are so and sos etc. etc. but they do not propose these schemes.)
2. You get just about nothing for your 500 which is another feature of socialist taxes.
I have worked in the USSR where control of property was absolute (except for senior party members of course). Adjectives can not politely describe how horrible their housing was in general. Do we want the same in the UK because that is the way we are heading
I think it is rich that councils are suggesting licensing to curb anti-social behaviour. In my orbit most anti-social behaviour comes from social/council housing.
I do agree with the initiative when it comes to rogue agents/Landlords treating Tenants in a poor manner. What about builders, car-mechanics and other industries that treat their Customers in a shoddy fashion. Is there a suggestion of regulation them No.
This is, as we all know in the industry, the year to bash the PRS and us who work hard in it. It is also the year before the next general election in the UK and I suspect all this crap is about vote grabbing - especially on the part of the Labour party.
Carl Agar is right. You don't get rid of the problem by bringing in licensing, it's just a temporary, short-term solution. What exactly am I getting for my 500 license Tackle the problem at its root, don't come up with easy money-making schemes like this to try and deal with a complex, wide-ranging issue.
500 for what length of 'license' and for what
Seems to be another money grabbing scheme by another money grabbing council to help top up, among other things, their inflated pension pots!