Oxford City Council’s groundbreaking new powers for licensing houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) will start to license every HMO in the city from the end of the month.
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The first phase started in January last year and the Council have now issued a total of 933 licences for three or more storey properties, or two storey properties where five or more unrelated people are living and sharing facilities.
From Monday 30 January2012 every landlord who owns a property where three or more unrelated tenants live and share facilities such as the kitchen and bathroom will be required to get a HMO licence.
Oxford City Council is the first council in the country to introduce a HMO licensing scheme that covers the whole of its area and that requires every HMO to be licensed.
It is estimated that this will involve licensing approximately 5000 properties in total.
Councillor Joe McManners, Board Member for Housing, says: “The team have worked hard to licence HMOs in the city and we are well on the way to issuing a thousand HMO licences.
“We have received a good response from the sector and I am pleased that they have embraced the scheme and co-operated with the council. Over 90 per cent of the applications for HMOs have been received using the online system on our website.
“HMOs have long been recognised as being a particular problem in the city, with many examples of poor quality homes and in some cases being poorly managed. These damage the reputation of good landlords and we are determined to put this right, and stop those doing the right thing being undercut by cowboys.
“The private rented sector is hugely important to the residents of Oxford, not just in terms of providing much needed accommodation, but also with the impact that it can have on local communities and licensing every HMO will help drive up standards for everyone.
“We now have the hard job of licensing every property in the city and with estimates of up to 5000 properties this means there will be a lot of work to do.
“This will require landlords to come forward and license their properties. If they don’t they could be prosecuted and given a fine of up to £20,000.
“Enforcement action is being taken against those landlords and agents who are not complying with the scheme and some of them have been taken to court and fined. Now every HMO in the city needs a licence, there is nowhere left to hide.”
The Licensing Scheme gives the Council increased powers to deal with HMOs. Every HMO will be inspected before a licence is issued and the Council is able to specify conditions on the licence that the licence holder must comply with or face legal action.
If problems occur with poor management or unsafe conditions, legal action can be taken which may result in the licence holder losing their licence and their ability to run HMOs.
Those landlords who have already been found guilty of relevant offences will not be able to hold a licence for an HMO and will have to find someone else, such as a reputable Letting Agent, to run their properties for them.
There is an annual fee to license an HMO and the fees will be used to pay for the scheme so that it is self financing and there will be no cost to the taxpayer. At the same time, the council will not make a “profit” from this scheme.
There are additional charges for landlords who try and avoid licensing their properties and where complaints from tenants or residents result in extra visits by officers being necessary. There are also fee reductions for good landlords, including those who own multiple properties.
01865 252267
