The first blanket compulsory licensing scheme of all private rented properties in one area in England came into force on January 1 in the London borough of Newham.
However, a notice on the council’s website says the deadline to pay for a licence at a discount has been extended to January 31. It had been December 31.
The price of the discounted licence is £150 per property, to last five years.
The website says: “We have received feedback about our scheme from both landlords and agents with a number of properties in Newham. We understand that some of you would like more time to prepare and gather all of the information you need to make your licence applications.
“After listening to your comments, we are now prepared to extend the application period with the discount fee until 31 January 2013.”
The scheme, which is supported by Shelter, will cover an estimated 35,000 households.
The cost per licence will be £500 after the end of the discount period. Those who fail to register for the scheme will be liable to fines of up to £20,000.
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Comments
@Added on By 3.1.13
It has everything to do with HMOs because:-
1. It includes all HMOs and makes licensing mandatory for those that otherwise are not and would not need a licence
2. It brings the s257 HMOs, the potential death trap converteed not in compliance with 1999 building regs, into the licensing arena
Nothing to do with HMO's - hardly!!
If you call this council a bunch of gangsters then what they are doing can very simply be described as an extortion racket. The only reason I can see for paying the £500 is to make sure you do not get ruined by having to pay £20,000.
My bet will be that that £500 charge will be inflation indexed and/or in about five years time will be increased to £1,000. I may well be wrong of course.
I hope their accountant has explained to the councillors that this scheme will only pay out once every five years so they are going to have one head banger of a cash flow problem when they employ lots of new administrative staff.
Industry Observer: nothing to do with HMOs, and no sign of Newham backing off. This is blanket use of selective licensing of EVERY private rental property in the whole borough. So, not very selective then, and it's already here as from yesterday. Wonder when the next council will do the same thing, and where it will be?
Sorry I must be missing a trick here.
This Additional Licensing Scxheme was Newham's follow up next move after their successful licensing of one entire borough - is that correct?
If so surely they backed off this scheme, I read it I am sure in the industry press a couple of months back (or else have had yet another senior moment!!).
I thought Newham had abandoned its plans to try and licensce every single HMO in its area? They were the only Council to at that stage have gone that far, so it must be them that has backed down if indeed they have.
Benny - you should give Ros a case study
Done all our 15 properties
I only received 1 draft licence
And guess what they advised only 2 people can stay in a 4 bedroom house, even though you can get a bed and wardrobe in all rooms
June 26, 2012 - "Licensing private tenancies was piloted in Newham’s Little Ilford Neighbourhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) resulting in the council claiming 100% compliance" [Newham Council]
That went well.
Its always odd how good landlords sign up and spend more money jumping through hoops - but those who dont maintain, pay tax etc just dont bother.
This drives them further underground.
Sir Robin Hood Wales detests landlords and wants them to sell up so he can buy properties with tenants cheaply to hit his housing target which he has spectacularly missed.
This red tape will prove a waste of money when Boris rolls out his London wide plan.
"We have received feedback from landlords..."
So you haven't received any money then.