A second London council is to introduce mandatory blanket licensing of all private rented properties across its borough.
Barking and Dagenham council in east London will introduce the scheme from September 1.
A five-year licence will cost £180, rising to £500 after September 1.
Fines for not licensing will be £20,000 and there will be £5,000 penalties for any breaches of the licence. Licence holders must be a “fit and proper person”.
Cllr Jeanne Alexander, cabinet member for crime, justice and communities at the council, said: “Nearly one in five homes in the borough are privately rented and over 42% of these homes have cold, damp or mould or present a fire risk to the occupants. Disrepair, poor kitchen facilities and gas safety are also an issue.
“There is a growing perception that poorly managed privately rented properties have a negative effect on neighbourhoods, with anti-social behaviour, noise nuisance and accumulation of refuse.
“Some of these complaints can be linked to the failure of some private landlords to manage their properties effectively.”
Newham Council introduced a landlord licensing scheme in January last year. The borough has so far received 32,517 licence applications and bought 185 prosecutions for failures to licence.
As a private landlord and an agent I agree with licensing but the level this is charged at I feel this is another stealth tax by local government. Charge a nominal fee of £30 but £500?! No doubt they will pledge that they have to charge this fee to cover the costs of administrating the licenses. This is nonsense as they already have staff and hardware to bill and issue such licenses. Insurance, Vat, income tax, stamp duty and now a licence fee, being a private landlord is becoming to costly. I feel the whole tax system needs a complete overhaul and brought up to date. Property prices have risen beyond inflation and yet the government continue to keep stamp duty at the same threshold!
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“There is a growing perception that poorly managed privately rented properties have a negative effect on neighbourhoods, with anti-social behaviour, noise nuisance and accumulation of refuse.”
I believe those examples are more likely to be found among the “social housing” tenants rather than private rentals.
I fully agree with DanielH1 that a nominal fee of £30 is much more acceptable. Licencing is a cash cow for councils. They already have sufficient legislation to tackle the alleged issues raised by Cllr Jeanne Alexander, cabinet member for crime, justice and communities (don’t they just LOVE their grandiose titles) so what is stopping them. Landlords are now fighting back and challenging licensing with two councils, so far, changing their minds and not proceeding. The more councils are unchallenged the more they will extend the licensing schemes and, more than likely, increase the fees to annual rather than per five years!
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