14th
Oct 2016
PIMS note: Although this story features Bristol, it does show that more and more landlords are campaigning against council's mandatory licensing schemes.
Bristol Landlords are going after the City council by filing a complaint against it for its plans to extend the city's selective licensing scheme.
The local paper reports that the landlords are going to the Local Government Ombudsman with their 'maladministration' complaint against the council.
Bristol City Council has already introduced a mandatory landlord licensing in Stapelton Road but not content with this they are going roll out the scheme to other city districts.
Private landlords who have properties within the designated areas, will have to pay £470 for each rental property to join the scheme and their 'rental homes' will have to undergo thorough and rigorous inspections.
The landlords will be filing the maladministration complaint against the council's two new schemes as the application was based on 'error-filled' data with an 'inaccurate' survey. One landlord, Anne Pargeter, is outraged that the council is claiming that the two new areas targeted in the new schemes were unfairly listed as being in the lowest 10% of deprived areas in the city, in its consultation report.
She points out that the council's own website states that the areas in question are much higher up the list than the consultation's findings.
As the landlords were unable to meet the deadline for a judicial review, they have no other recourse than to take their complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.
Unfortunately the ombudsman does not have the necessary powers to overturn the scheme, but it can force the council to return the licence fee paid by the landlords if the complaint is judged in their favour.
Paul Routledge, one the landlords said :"Maladministration is actually an easier route to go down than judicial review, because you can take it to the ombudsman."
He is confident that if the groups complaint is upheld and even if one landlord has their fee returned, then the other 2000 plus landlords will receive the same.
The Bristol landlords campaign group has been inspired by the Somerset Property Network's success against a proposed licensing scheme to be introduced in Weston Super Mare, which the council decided to drop.
News Archive »