Prosecution – but no fine – over unlicensed buy to let properties
A council has taken a landlord to court for failing to licence his two buy to let properties under its selective licensing scheme – but there has been no fine issued and only the council’s costs and a victim surcharge has had to be paid.
Rotherham council took Simon Nicholls of Worksop to court but the landlord was given a conditional discharge at the Sheffield magistrates’ hearing. He was ordered to pay just £361.48 costs and a victim surcharge of £15.
The court was told that in December 2015 the council wrote to Nicholls, requesting information relating to the two properties he was letting out. Despite further contact in January and February this year, no application for a licence was received.
Nicholls, who pleaded guilty to the offence, told the court he was apologetic and informed them that he would be applying for his licences.
A council statement after the hearing claimed that the authority would not allow “irresponsible landlords to persist with their actions indefinitely” and that the case “should be a warning to other landlords.”
Letting Agent Today asked the council whether the case was worthwhile given the small return as a result of the prosecution.
Karen Hanson, Rotherham Council’s Assistant Director for Community Safety and Street Scene, told LAT: “Each case is taken on its own merits and individual circumstances of landlords can be very different. In this case the defendant claimed he was not living at home following a divorce, as a result he had did not have knowledge of the issues surrounding the licensing of his properties. He also stated that he had properties in another area of Rotherham that did not fall under the jurisdiction of selective licensing and as a result thought his properties in Maltby did not need licensing.
“However the council takes a firm line on all selective licensing cases; we will give landlords fair opportunity to register with the scheme, along with the opportunity to pay monthly for their licenses; but if they do not register then we will prosecute. Inevitably, in some cases, this will cost the council money that is not recouped from costs awarded by the court, but this is a price we are prepared to pay to get the message across to those landlords who are failing to license.”
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Central Housing Group Ltd is a residential Letting & Management agent established in 2000 and based in north London.
We specialise in supplying local authorities with privately rented accommodation across London. We procure this accommodation from private sector landlords for letting on our ‘Guaranteed Rent’ scheme.
Our ‘Guaranteed Rent’ Scheme provides landlords with a guaranteed monthly rental income for up to 5 years.
As a fully contracted supplier to many Councils, our accounts are audited annually and are subject to regular and close scrutiny by our Council clients – landlords can therefore have complete confidence in our ability to ensure they will receive their agreed rent on a Guaranteed basis for the duration of the term of their contract with us.
If you are interested in finding our more about our ‘Guaranteed Rent’ Scheme, currently operating in north (e.g. Enfield, Edmonton, Ponders End, Enfield Highway, Enfield Island Village, Enfield Wash, Freezywater, etc.), east & west London, please call us today on 020 8447 1222.
Please be aware that the London Borough of Enfield does not currently operate a Landlord Licensing Scheme for rental properties in its borough, unlike many other London Boroughs and other areas of the country.
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