Nottingham City Council have submitted an application through TWO avenues in order to make all Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) licensable if within the city boundary.
Many landlords are aware of the compulsory licensing introduced in 2004 for a certain type of HMO regardles of where it is in England. This new application that has been submitted both under The Sustainable Communities Act AND The Housing Act 2004, if accepted, will allow Nottingham City Council to apply a licensing requirement on any rental property that has two or more occupants.
In essence, the Council will have the power to apply this requirement and the corresponding cost of a license, currently £640 on any property in an area within the city boundary, without consultation. This could be a city wide requirement or even down to a street by street level. At present the Council are deflecting clarification of which areas are to be licensed, citing that a city wide application will allow them to assess this at a later date.
The implications of these applications on all landlords with properties within this area are immense. Notwithstanding the cost of applying for the license, any inspection undertaken may result in an enforcement order to alter the property which could run into thousands of pounds and be totally irrelevant to the ‘type’ of person actually living there.
EMPO (East Midlands Property Owners) are a landlord association based in Nottingham, but covering the whole of the East Midlands, that have highlighted the issues with the proposed applications and are committed to addressing these issues head on.
Would all landlords please note that Belvoir Nottingham are committed to lobbying the Council with a view to re-assessing the application and provide support to EMPO to achieve this role. No landlord, whether they have property within the Nottingham City area or not should take this lightly; several other councils have made similar applications and this will therefore affect every landlord within the Nottinghamshire area as well as on a national level.
Please support EMPO with their initiative, but if you have any questions as to what impact this will have on you please contact us immediately. The consultation period for this will be over on the 11th December 2009 and we need to stop this application.
Nigel Parry – Owner, Belvoir Nottingham Central
