Council to start licensing all HMOs
A council will begin licensing every house in multiple occupation from the end of this month.
Oxford Council announced the plans in January last year and, since then, has issued 933 licences for three or more storey properties where five or more unrelated people are living.
From Monday 30 January this will be extended to require every landlord who owns a property where three or more unrelated tenants live and share facilities to get a HMO licence. Failure to do so could result in prosecution and a £20,000 fine.
The council said it was the first local authority in the country to introduce a HMO scheme that covers the whole of its area and that the policy would involve involve licensing approximately 5,000 properties in total.
Joe McManners, member for housing, said: ‘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.’
An annual fee is needed to license an HMO with the money used to pay for the scheme. The council said it would not make a profit from the fees.
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 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.
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Readers' comments (15)
Concerned Landlord | 27/01/2012 1:45 pm
This is an example of misuse of HMO legislation.
Oxford City Counci is generally anti-student and using HMO laws to target student as they are the ones typically like to share a house.
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Joe Halewood | 27/01/2012 1:50 pm
Why do you say its a misuse?
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F451 | 27/01/2012 2:08 pm
Excellent news. No honest and reputable private landlord could possibly object to the Council make sure that other landlords do not compete unequally by cutting health and decency standards - but then I notice Concerned Landlord already objects - fearful that you will not be able to cut the corners CC?
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Concerned Landlord | 28/01/2012 4:26 pm
Joe: This is pure and simple social engineering. Oxford City Council does not want student to be able to rent properties in their city. Is n't that a "misuse" or even an "abuse"?
If a landlord has a 3 bedroom property in Oxford and rents out to 3 students, then he has a buy an expensive HMO license. However, if he rents out the same property to a single family, then it will not require a license.
Most landlords, will rent out to families instead of students.... to save the cost of getting an expensive HMO license.
F451: You comments are pure ignorance.
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Joe Halewood | 29/01/2012 1:38 pm
CL - two points.
1. An expensive licence? How much is the cost?
2. Before you answer that LHA figures for Oxford One Bedroom Rate:£153.46 per week and Three Bedrooms Rate:£219.23 per week
So renting to a family brings in £219.23 in LHA whereas renting to 3 single persons as part of a HMO brings in 3 x £154.46 or £463.38 - more than double the amount per week. Thats about an extra £12k per annum in HB.
There maybe more perceived risk in renting to 3 single persons and a little extra cost but an extra £12k per year more than makes up for that.
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Martin Wicks | 29/01/2012 4:26 pm
So how much does the license cost?
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Rick Campbell | 29/01/2012 5:31 pm
3+ storeys and 2 storey with 5 or more occupants £470 plus £20 for 6th and each additional bedroom. Renewal £172, Re-inspection £130.
1 or 2 storey with 3 or 4 occupants £362, £150 and £86 respectively.
There are discounts (10%) and all sorts of other stuff (well, it wouldn't be easy, would it?).
Details on the Oxford Council website but the details take a bit of hunting. Hope this helps.
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Concerned Landlord | 29/01/2012 10:20 pm
Joe: You have made messed up the numbers. The room rate is £80. Noe on is going to pay £153 for a single room in oxford.
Rick: For a typical 3 bedroom house. The HMO license cost is £362.
I don't see why any landlord will stump up £362 to take on students.
As I said this is social engineering.
Also, people may not be aware an HMO is formed when 3 friends JOINTLY want to rent a (whole) 3 bedroom house on a single contract. An HMO is also formed, when a landlord is renting his house on a room-by-room basis. When each of the residents have their own contract and leave their property without connection to other residents.
No landlord is going to waste £362, so they can rent to students. They will just switch to renting to families (which don't need a license).
3 Bedroom House - single family - NO LICENSE
3 Bedroom House - 3 friends shareing - form an HMO - LICENSE NEEDED!!
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dave morris | 30/01/2012 10:30 am
Let us hope London boroughs do not go down this route as student accommodation is in desperate short supply esp in Central London where most colleges are situated.
Landlords are already finding loopholes in the regulations. One example is that to be a HMO the occupants must be permanent and rent paying and not be visitors or guests ie resident for 3 months or over. A landlord with several properties will switch the students between properties every three months to ensure the 3rd and 4th student stays less than three months in any one property !
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dave morris | 30/01/2012 10:36 am
It might interest people to know that our dear Prime Minister shared digs at Oxford while he was a student there yet if the Council goes ahead with its anti student policy its ironic that students will not be able to find digs so easily in future !
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