I have calculated that the additional cost of licensing to a Landlord is approximately DOUBLE the fee demanded by the council .
This should be obvious the fee is meant to pay the councils costs in adminisintering the scheme - but the schemes usually require at least the same of amount of extra admin by landlords and often more.
So a a £1000 license fee will add around £2000 landlord costs and as costs are passed on at lease the same to private rental tenants rents.
OF course Landlords can use membership of the schemes as a “selling point” when they advertise - and to justify asking for higher rents.
But I’m not sure that is what tenants really want.
The real worry is most enforcement actions by councils seem to be extractng fines from landlords who fail to register or pay license fees to the council or who make admin errors rather than dealing with real issues that cause tenant suffering. This makes the licence fees more like a local tax on tenanted properties than a quality assurance scheme.
IMHO Local authorities need to do much better than simply forcing renters to maintain their beaurocracies from high rents
But I would love to hear from tenants - have you benefited ftom these schemes. Are properties significantly better in licensed areas to justify the higher rents?
for sure it does. In high crime areas, SL empowers the renter community to seek help from the Council in a myriad of ways, SL powers a LLDs elbow too & is a real bobus in terms of attracting customers & deterring the unwholesome potential customers. I speak as an accredited & L HMO & family let LLd who in the past 20 years has witnessed the cleaning up & clearing out of criminal LLDs & criminal tnts, SL turns the spotlight on ‘trouble’ & works with partners [ some voluntary[ to bring about change & empower once passive tnts to report thuggery, brothels, child prostitution, illegal immigration, shabeems, car chop- shop crime, overcrowding, puppy- farming, cannabis- farming & fagin- style dens, I have houses in non- SL areas where the Councils turn a ‘blind eye’ to all the above to the chagrin of my tnts. In the SL area tnts complaints & my LLD complaints are swiftly dealt with. Also rubbish is removed when dumped locally foc so eye_- sores are not endemic, SL works very well for me & my customers & for the entire community as SL attracts massive investment to the area which brings jobs, improved transport, more local shops & a more confident community. House prices rise as a result. Whats not to like?