16th
Dec 2014
A High Court judge ruled recently that if Enfield Council wish to rollout their landlord licensing scheme, then they will have to make drastic changes to it for the council to stand any chance of being allowed to go ahead .
The council was told this at a judicial review that landlord Constantinos Regas had brought against the council over their plans to make all landlords sign up to their licensing scheme .Private landlords would have to pay £500 per property for a five a year licence.
Judge McKenna ruled that the scheme “cannot be lawfully implemented unless and until Enfield conduct a lawful consultation.”
Mr. Regas had brought the legal complaint to the High Court as he believed that the council's consultation period was too short and the scheme was illogical in its concept and terms.
The judge ruled that the council had not consulted widely enough on the plan as some of the proposals of introducing the scheme, would involve landlords living outside the borough and owning properties in Enfield. He agreed with the landlord's complaint that the consultation period was also not long enough.
Constantinos Regas, felt he had no other recourse than to launch the judicial review bid, as his views and comments were repeatedly rejected by the council, Regas said: "I have always maintained my view that good housing standards are a human right.
“But Enfield Council have not gone about this the right way. They have accused tenants of being antisocial and have sought to criminalise landlords for tenants' behaviour.”
Needless to say Enfield's cabinet member for housing, Ahmet Oykener , said the council “disagreed” with the judge's rulings.
He said: “It finds technical flaws with the consultation process which informed the scheme - which do not tally with the facts.
“The judge has ruled that the consultation mainly focused on gathering the views of local Enfield people rather than people living in neighbouring boroughs.
“While we make no apologies for putting the views of the people we represent at the heart of our consultation activity, we find this ruling surprising as we extended the consultation outside the boundaries of the borough.
“He has also ruled that we did not formally consult over a 10 week period. We actually ran the consultation over a 12 week period – two weeks longer that than recommended."
Oykener also announced that the council will be requesting a leave to challenge the ruling. He feels quite confident as he says that the judge did not find any fault with the licensing scheme itself, or with the report from which the decision was made to introduce the scheme.
News Archive »