Proposed - Southend Council £400 admin fee
If Southend Council has their way then rogue landlords will receive heavy admin bills “slapped” on them in an effort to make sure they start complying with acceptable practices.
The Council is hoping to introduce £400 charges every time it has to demand action from property owners.
Jacqui Lansley, the council’s head of community strategy and development said: “Wherever possible we seek to work co-operatively with landlords and managing agents to resolve problems informally.
“However, in those cases where landlords refuse to comply, these charges should help deter them from not maintaining their properties.”
Council chiefs are responsible for monitoring the state of privately-rented homes in the borough and where necessary ordering landlords to improve.
At the moment, there is no fee when such an order is issued, however the move could generate thousands of pounds and form part of the measures needed to plug a £10million black hole in its budget for next year.
If the new plans are adopted as part of the 2013/14 budget proposals, landlords will be hit with a £400 charge for every notice they receive, including management orders, prohibition orders and improvement notices.
Ms Lansley said: “The new charges relate to enforcement work undertaken by the council where informal enforcement and liaison with a landlord has proved unsuccessful and a formal enforcement notice or order has proved necessary.
“The £400 charge applied in the majority of cases was calculated following an extensive internal review of the amount of officer hours involved in serving such notices and orders, and recovering the costs of officer time involved.”