Call for agents to speak out over council rental licensing schemes
A leading PropTech entrepreneur says lettings agents should be more vocal in providing the government with feedback on council rental licensing schemes.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is assembling a panel of independent commissioners which will be responsible for gathering evidence on existing selective council rental licensing schemes from key stakeholders.
The review is set to determine whether the current council rental licensing schemes have achieved the aim of keeping tenants safe and improving standards in the private rented sector.
“Letting agents could be among the most helpful stakeholders in this process” says Neil Cobbold, chief operating officer of automated rental payment provider PayProp in the UK.
“This is due to their significant client bases and the likelihood of their having a range of different experiences of selective licensing over a number of years” he adds.
Selective landlord licensing schemes came into force in 2006 and allow local authorities to require landlords in a designated area to hold a licence for each rental property they own.
Cobbold says the time is right for a review, especially as this October the mandatory licensing of HMOs is being extended to include all properties let to five or more people from two or more households. It is estimated that an extra 160,000 properties across the country will need to be licensed.
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