Nottingham City Council to License EVERY rented property.

Nottingham City Council have today unveiled plans to license ###u 26,250 private rented properties within the Nottingham City Boundary.<>

The ###a href="http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/housing/private-sector-housing/selective-licensing/" target="_blank">consultation will run from 16 January 2017 to 31 March 2017, with the proposed scheme being implemented in February 2018.  The scheme will mean the licensing of an estimated 26,250 rental properties across Nottingham City. The cost to the sector will be £600 per property, plus additional costs to comply with over 30 conditions.

Who this will directly effect:

• Anyone who owns a private rented property within Nottingham City that is not already licensed.

Who this will not directly effect:

• Properties outside of Nottingham City (Beeston - part of Broxtowe Borough, for example).
• Properties that are already licensed either as part of mandatory licensing, or as part of the more recently introduced additional licence.

What does Comfort Lettings think? In brief, this is a fairly blunt instrument to improve housing standards, and financially penalises those who are already compliant.  The counter to this is that the alternatives do not work, so if deemed necessary, we would like to see the cost to good landlords heavily discounted. (A discount of £140 is on offer to accredited Landlords, but we think this could go further).

The council agree that compliant landlords make the job (and therefore cost) of licensing much easier/cheaper.  There could be a much larger discount offered to landlords who are part of an accreditation scheme and who are already compliant.  This would encourage higher levels of compliance, and reduce further the costs to already compliant landlords.  They could offer this in conjunction with higher penalties in place for non-compliant landlords to cover any shortfall they have in operating the scheme should they find that more landlords were encouraged to be compliant than they expected.

In short, the bad landlords should pay...

What can I do about this?

• Complete the Online Survey or email selective.licensing@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
• Contact Housing Strategy:
  • Tel: 0115 8761555
  • Visit the website.###ligiles@empo.co.uk.

Can I read more? You can visit the council website and read the associated literature that was published today.

• Table of Fees
• Consultation Document
• Map of proposed designation

Click the below link to read a further overview and comments from East Midlands Properties Owners (EMPO) landlords association:

http://www.empo.co.uk/home/selective-licensing-nottingham.html

You can also read the minutes and full details from the Council meeting where Selective Licensing was proposed.

If you have any questions about the contents of this email or anything else, please contact the office on 0115 9338997.