Selective Licensing – EMPO’s update following the Nottingham Landlord meeting on 24th May 2018
by Giles Inman
Nottingham City Council (NCC) hosted a Selective Licensing event on 24th May to provide a residential landlord update on their scheme to licence 32,000 family homes across Nottingham as from the 1st August 2018.
The meeting focused on highlighting changes to the licensing conditions triggered by a recent court case Brown v Hyndburn bc. In this case, the Court held that the power to regulate the “management, occupation or use” of a house does not entitle an authority to impose conditions requiring the introduction of new facilities or equipment.
To review the schemes conditions, click HERE.
The following updates have been made to these conditions:
· Proof of building insurance will now only need to show it is for a BTL property
· If the licence holder has a current standard or enhanced DBS certificate, it will be accepted as part of the application process provided there are no convictions listed on it.
· Evidence of formal licence holder training in the last three years will be required as part of the application process. A CPD certificate from the training course will suffice. All EMPO’s training courses come with CPD certificates. (DASH’s online training also satisfies this condition – comment added to post by Linda Cobb at DASH)
· There is no requirement for an EICR, although it is recommended you have one done for each property as it expected to be a legal requirement across the entire Private Rented Sector from October 2019. (If the licence holder wants to secure the £300.00 accreditation discount from the licence fee they will need to obtain an EICR for their accreditation)
· There is no longer a requirement to provide a fire alarm test certificate where there is a fire alarm control panel.
· There is no longer a requirement to fit a thumb turn mortice lock on the front door of the property
· Floorplans are no longer required; however, room sizes will be required as part of the online application form.
· There is no longer a requirement to produce an inventory.
Please click HERE to check your property comes under the scheme.
Landlords were advised to continue to review NCC website to get all the latest updates.
Online applications will commence from the 1st July 2018, beware any applications made after the 1st August will place the licence holder at significant risk in respect of Civil Penalty notices and Rent Repayment Order (RRO).
NCC have agreed to provide landlord licence holders managing over 30 rental properties and agents managing over 120 properties an extended period until the 31st October to complete their online applications. For licence holders to qualify for this extension and not be issued with a Civil Penalty notice the Council must receive a list of all properties subject to licensing by the end of July. However, no guarantees will be given to protect licence holders from tenants applying for RRO in these circumstances. Please visit NCC website for further details.
Anton Menzies, Head of Safer Housing at NCC made a point of saying the Council were not interested in targeting and enforcing against genuine good landlords who have failed unintentionally in their management responsibilities under this scheme. Instead, the Council would be looking to target the criminal landlords whose business model is simply to operate under the radar by issuing costly Civil Penalty notices and encouraging tenants to apply for RRO’s.
To help landlords and agents understand the implications and complexities of these schemes EMPO is hosting a number of two-hour workshops in Nottingham.
The objective of the Selective Licensing workshops is to explain, step-by-step, exactly what landlords need to do to initially get their properties licenced, along with the ongoing requirement to manage and maintain their properties within the scope of the scheme.
There will be Q&A’s along the way, and attendees will leave with a full practical understanding of what is required in time for the August 1st deadline.
To book your delegate place at one of our workshops please click HERE
For more information on the Nottingham Selective Licensing Scheme click HERE
