It’s been clear for months that licensing of homes in multiple occupation (HMOs) is in deep trouble. Inside Housing’s lead story today lays bare the extent of the failure. But the situation may be even worse than that.
According to the report, landlords of 35,000 HMOs are still not licensed and 25,000 have not even applied. That means that three years after licensing began well over half of the 56,000 estimated to be covered by the scheme are operating illegally.
Landlords have applied for licenses for 31,345 HMOs over those three years - just under 900 a month. And local authorities have issued 21,688 licenses - about 600 a month.
However, a parliamentary answer in December put the totals then at 29,254 applications and 19,208 issued. This is a back of the envelope calculation, but call it six months since then and the rate per month has slowed to 350 per month for applications and 400 per month for licenses issued.
At that rate it will take at least another eight years for the sector to be fully licensed - and it’s not difficult to imagine that the rate will slow down even further as we get down to the dodgiest landlords and the most snail-like councils.
And how reliable are the licenses? Inside Housing’s story does not contain a figure for the number of applications refused but the total for England in December was just 84 - or 0.2%.
New guidance from Communities and Local Government will hopefully help but tenants are rightly calling the system totally ineffective and good landlords who have complied with and paid for it will be rightly be asking what is going on.
Have your say
You must sign in to make a comment