I have a HMO rented out to students. The council requested for a license compliance inspection which was sent via email. I responded immediately to say that the date and time wasn’t suitable so requested an alternative date and time. I didn’t hear back for a couple of weeks so I sent a follow up email. Still no response. I eventually contacted my tenants to ask if anyone turned up and they said that someone did come to inspect on the said date. A month after the initial email the same person from the Council responds to my email to re-arrange the inspection. I asked them why are they doing another inspection if they had already been and they provided a vague response to say that the inspection was not done yet. After probing further they decided to phone me and explain that they had issues with their phone so photographs were not taken and therefore the inspection is not yet completed. Something sounds fishy to me. Can the council turn up at a property at anytime they’d like?
To provide further background, we have not had any complaints about the house or tenants. The house is in very good condition (high end student accommodation) and the HMO conditions were a few small and minor changes which we had already completed a couple of years ago. So there really is no reason to have any doubts or suspicion from the Council’s perspective.