Mick Roberts, who has operated in the city’s rental market for nearly three decades, says ongoing frustrations with Nottingham City Council’s selective licensing scheme have pushed him to begin selling off parts of his portfolio.
The licensing programme, which first launched in 2018 and was updated in December 2023, applies to around 30,000 rental homes across Nottingham. The council maintains that the scheme—requiring landlords to pay for licences—is designed to improve housing standards and ensure properties are safe and well-managed.
Under Nottingham’s selective licensing rules, landlords are required to hold keys for any side or rear gates on their properties and ensure tenants have reliable access. But for Mick Roberts, who owns multiple flats within council-managed blocks, that responsibility has become complicated.
At one property in Bulwell, the city council changed the locks on the external gates nearly two years ago. While the tenant was issued an updated key, Mr Roberts says he was not—leaving him unable to fulfil his obligations under the licensing scheme.
He’s now questioning whether the council’s refusal to provide him with a key constitutes a breach of its own licensing requirements.
When Mr Roberts brought the issue to the council’s attention, officials responded by stating they would eliminate the gate key requirement for that specific property, rather than providing him with access.
A Council spokesperson said: "Mick Roberts has got a licence for this property. He queried the licence conditions which required him to provide keys for the tenants for any gates they needed to access.
"We understand the keys are held by the city council housing services team as there are other council-owned properties in the block. As he doesn't have control of the gates, we have chosen to vary his licence, removing the condition that requires him to provide a key to the gate for his tenants."
Mr Roberts warned that the council’s refusal to provide him with a gate key could create serious complications if a tenant were to misplace theirs, leaving both landlord and tenant without access and no immediate solution. He said: "They're essentially blocking me and more importantly they're blocking the tenants because if they lose their key, we're absolutely stuffed. It's ridiculous.
"When I'm abroad, I can still get a key to my tenants in 10 minutes because there's always someone who I can get to go round. It does happen, usually about three or four times a year, where a tenant loses their key."
Although the Bulwell property where the locks were changed falls outside Nottingham’s selective licensing zone, Mr Roberts owns several other flats located behind council-installed gates that do fall under the scheme. He’s now concerned that if the council were to change the locks on those gates as well, he could once again be denied access—despite being responsible for ensuring tenant entry under licensing rules.
The frustrated landlord, said: "There's no joined-up thinking. Why isn't the council going to its housing services team and saying 'we need to sort this because we can't even comply with selective licensing?'
"It's one rule for the council and another for us and that's what they still don't get. They can just get rules removed when they themselves can't comply - it beggars belief."