Property owners holding landlord insurance policies in the London borough of Newham have now all been informed by letter that they must license their properties before mandatory licensing begins on January 1st 2013.
Landlords can save money by applying early as Newham Council is only charging £150 for applications made before 31st December. However, afterwards the fee for the licence which lasts for five years will increase to £500. Failure to apply for a licence will be an offence and the council is warning that this could lead to a fine of £20,000. Although it will normally be the landlord who is the licence holder it can also be the managing agent, but whoever holds the licence will be responsible for adhering to its conditions.
Newham Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, said “It is clear from our consultation that our residents, including tenants in private sector homes, back our plans. This scheme shows that Newham is leading the country when it comes to tackling bad landlords who flout the law. We want to ensure that private sector rented properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We also want to deal with the crime and anti-social behaviour that is sometimes associated with bad private sector rented housing. There are good landlords in Newham and we want to work with them. Unfortunately there are also some unscrupulous ones – which these proposals would target.”
The authority is so far the only one in England and Wales to introduce borough-wide licensing of all private rental properties, regardless of their size and whether or not they are HMOs, and while there have been mutterings about the policy being unfair the vast majority of property owners are happy to become licensed because they feel it will help them find better tenants. It is possible to apply online for a licence from Newham Council, but the process will take about 40 minutes per property and the council are warning that the later property owners delay, the longer accreditation will take as the system will be inundated with applications.