1^st Jul 2019

A landlord association has accused a council of introducing an “unlawful” set of fees for their licensing scheme.

The association sent a letter to Blackburn with Darwen council stating that they consider the fees structure for their existing selective licensing scheme as 'unlawful'.

The council is charging landlords a £750 fee per property for the selective licence and there is also an annual charge of £150 that must be paid to remain in the scheme.

The association says that the council is acting unlawfully by charging for both the application fee as well as an additional annual fee.

In the association's letter it tells the council that by law a council's licensing scheme should not be permitted to charge an annual fee on top of the £750, as it is in effect an annual subscription.

The association is now challenging the council to review their policy of licensing scheme charges with the utmost urgency.

The letter includes: “While we appreciate the serious funding challenges faced by local authorities this does not justify the charging of fees that are not lawfully permitted … The association requests that the council amends its current fee structure, splitting the licence fee into two parts and removing the requirement of paying an annual fee and remove the licence condition.”



News Archive »