Agents’ views sought for large HMO licensing scheme

Agents, landlords and others’ views are being sought in a consultation on proposals to introduce a borough-wide additional licensing scheme for HMOs. 

The consultation, by Sandwell Council, starts this week and will run for 10 weeks. It will give agents a chance to have their say on the scheme which the council claims will help improve housing management and conditions as well as on measures to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour problems. 

The additional licensing scheme would mean that landlords of any house in multiple occupation not covered by mandatory licensing would need to obtain a licence. 

Landlords would need to apply for a one-off licence for each house in multiple occupation that they rent.

This will affect around 3,500 houses across the borough. Councils can introduce additional licensing under the Housing Act 2004, to tackle problems such as poor property conditions, poor management, significant anti-social behaviour or high levels of crime.

A council spokesperson says: “We know that we have a lot of good HMO landlords who recognise their responsibilities and care about their tenants. We also know that there are some HMO landlords who charge high rents, allow their tenants to live in poorly-maintained, unmanaged properties or don’t take action against tenants causing anti-social behaviour. This is unacceptable.

“We want to make sure that HMO tenants live in a good standard of property that is properly managed, which is why we want to hear people’s views on the licensing proposals as part of the consultation.”

The consultation runs until March 18 and is available here.