Some councils now want to register all landlords, and are charging up to £500.00 per property. Upon receipt of the relevant information, apparently Newham Council in London were the first to introduce this, and now apparently at least one other council, Waltham Forest, are considering doing the same.
The extract read that a landlord whom has properties in Newham said there is a lot of paperwork involved as the council wants to know the whole ins and outs of the entire property – it is of many’s opinion that this is seen to be the latest money maker for councils, as landlords are seen to be the easy target for many given the recent bad press and exposure they have received in the past 18 months.
A resident of the Waltham Forest area noted that his council have produced a survey (which he/she alleges to be very biased) and on the result of this survey they will introduce the same licensing. The survey apparently seems to suggest that all the anti-social is caused by the PRS, yet in the area there is a lot of council housing with the usual problems associated with the aforementioned, which is not addressed in the survey. Waltham Forest council claim that the licence will help them to reduce anti-social behaviour.
The resident stated the following; “I contacted the council leader to protest at such a biased approach and the danger of meddling in the housing market, in what in any case is supposed to a free market society. Labour councils do not seem to understand that tenants in the PRS are not ‘life tenants’, they have the ability and indeed want to be able to move be it for their job or because they are getting married and want to buy, etc. I have never understood why council tenants should have a tenancy for life what it is worth, because if they do well and start earning a good salary they should vacate their council property for somebody that needs subsidized housing.”
