Last night I attended a meeting held by the National landlords Association in Liverpool regarding the selective licensing that will be introduced in April 2015. Three members of Liverpool city council housing department attended the meeting with their the aim of answering any questions that people may have had. The meeting was attended to by approximately 80 local landlords and agents who all had many questions that they would like answered but unfortunately the council where still not in a position to answer the many questions asked. As we are less than four months away from the scheme being up and running, there are far too many grey areas that needs clearing up and I made the point that the consultation process was flawed due to the councils lack of landlords being informed about it and therefore only receiving a very small percentage of landlord feedback in respect of the proposed license.
The main points that I took from the meeting was:
The fees should be released soon although £500 per property is still a fee that the council are looking to charge but if you have multiple properties then they are still looking to only give you a £50 discount on the license from the 2nd property onwards. Eg. £500 for the first and then £450 each for each additional property.
They are also looking at giving discounts for being a part of accredited schemes and these discounts range from potentially £200 to £300 per property but when I asked which schemes would this include, they were not in a position to give the answer.
It was also mentioned that other councils had introduced a similar scheme but the costs of joining where a lot less than the £500 that Liverpool Council was looking to implement.
The council still remain strong on the point that the scheme is a non-for-profit scheme and that they will review over time. It look like the scheme will run for a long time in the future and will also be taken up by many other councils around the country.
The council are also looking at possible payment plans to ease the burden of paying the fees upfront.
They will not be a refund if you sell your property or no longer rent it out midway through the a five year term.
That people will be able to apply for the license from the end of January 2015.
There was a solicitor present, who had gone through the documents provided by Liverpool City Council and she had had noticed a few contradicting points and she wants to bring a case together to fight the license and have it abolished.
As a company we will be looking to join other accredited landlord schemes so that we have all bases covered in respect of hopefully achieving the maximum possible discounts available for our landlords who’s property that we currently manage.
If you have not already emailed the council to voice your concerns, then I feel it would be in your best interest to email Selective.Licensing@liverpool.gov.uk and roger.mann@liverpool.gov.uk to urge them to offer large discounts for having your property managed by an award winning letting agency that maintains the highest level of standards.
As always, if I have any further information on this matter then I will update you.
