It was revealed in September that Nottingham City Council has raised £8 million in the space of a year from their controversial selective licensing scheme which aimed to ‘improve the quality of rented accommodation across the city’.
Nottingham City Council has also issued £84,173 worth of fines to those landlords who either failed to improve their properties or failed to apply for a licence.
The scheme has been in place for just over a year
Landlords across the affected areas were infuriated when the selective licensing scheme was initially brought in on August 1 last year, with some claiming they would sell up or shift the extra costs on to their tenants.
The council insisted that having a licence means the council can check properties are safe to rent and can crack down on bad landlords who leave properties in poor or unsafe conditions.
Applying for licenses
Around 32,000 properties require a licence, and those who refuse to apply face fines of up to £30,000 or prosecution through the courts. The council has so far received nearly 17,000 – just over half.
As we have covered in many of our previous articles and newsletters, to obtain a licence, accredited landlords must pay £480 per property while non-accredited pay £780.
However, concerns were raised that good landlords were being victimised – and were already adhering to the conditions set by the council.
Civil Penalty Notices
Since August 2018 the council has issued 22 civil penalty notices and five prosecutions, with nine of these relating to landlords failing to apply for a selective licence.
Officers have also visited unlicensed properties in the city and in some cases have noted a trend of smoke alarm systems not working or being absent, placing tenants at risk.
Landlord Liaison Group
The council said it has met landlords at more than 30 events over the last year and it plans to launch a new Landlord Liaison Group (watch this space).
Council not allowed to generate income from the scheme
A spokeswoman for Nottingham City Council has said that "the council is not allowed to generate income from the scheme and so all money goes back into the scheme – at present the scheme has raised £8m and the funds have gone towards setting up and will continue to go towards the running of the scheme.”
She also added that "the maximum fine we have issued is £12,242.53 and the average fine is £4,208 out of the 20 that have been served.
The civil penalty notices are for a mixture of failure to licence – selective, additional and mandatory; breach of management regulations; breach of licence conditions and failure to comply with an improvement notice. The total is £84,173.17.”
