The Greater Bristol Letting Agency
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Accommodation Unlimited Letting Agents

Property Licencing - Raising Housing Standards or

I have an aversion to filling out forms, in fact it's almost a phobia, so when we had to fill out 20+ pages to licence I started to get what Jane Austen would call “the vapours”. When we were then told it would cost up to £1,000 per licence our landlords didn’t just have a fit of the vapours they just had fits of rage.

Paul Smith, Bristol’s housing czar is a likable man, and I consider him a friend even though we are on opposite sides of the political spectrum.  We both have a passion for this city and the desire to make it better, where we differ is the means of doing so. 

Paul will say that licencing is a way to force bad landlords to improve their properties or get out of the market.  I would argue that licencing is a blunt instrument that will hit the conscientious landlords hardest and will be ignored by the bad landlords who will just go underground and won’t improve the standard of these properties.  We agree to differ, and I am sure that there will be many differing opinions amongst those reading this depending on your political bent.

Licencing was introduced to Easton in 2013, and there have been some prosecutions however the case of Mushtaq Ahmed is probably an indication of how licencing is or isn’t working.  Mr Ahmed advertised a property in Easton for £795 in June of this year.  An ex- tenant posted a counter advert alleging that the property was unsafe and provided photos to back up this claim.  There is an awful lot of "he said, she said" about this case but there are indisputable facts which raise serious questions

Fact: Last year Mr Ahmed received £79,525 from Bristol City Council in Housing benefit

Fact: The majority of Mr Ahmed’s  properties are in Easton which has had licencing since 2013

The three questions that come immediately to me are

  1. Are Mr Ahmed’s properties licenced?
  2. If not why are Bristol City Council paying nearly £80,000 in Housing Benefit for unlicensed properties?
  3. If they are licenced and the photos are accurate.  Who the hell inspected them?

Let’s look at inspections first. 

Bristol City Council admit that they do not have the resources to inspect every licenced property.  They have to prioritise who gets inspected, and I was told “off the record” that landlords who put their applications in late are more likely to be inspected as they will be deemed as having “something to hide”, landlords who have had complaints made about them to Acorn will also be inspected, regardless of whether these complaints are true, false or malicious.  So if English is not your first language or you lack the education or confidence to fill in a 20 page form then you are likely to be inspected.  If you have fallen out with your tenants you will be inspected.  If you choose not to comply you probably will get away with it.

Now let’s look at the cost.   

The cost of licencing starts at £470 and can rise up to £1,000.  The average rent for a 1 bed flat in this area is £600 so approximately 80% of a month’s rent is going to pay for a licence.  The average 3 bed house rents for around £1050 so for a 3 bed house you will lose virtually a month’s rent.  There were discounts for early applications but that comes in the form of “cash back” and will be paid when a property is “up to standard” but if the property is not inspected how do you know it is “up to standard”?

It is claimed that licencing will improve standards but if you have to pay the equivalent of a month’s rent for a licence that means you will have less money to improve the property for your tenants.  If you believe that the cost of licencing won’t be passed onto tenants with higher rents then you probably also believe that Bristol Rovers will sign Messi and Ronaldo in the January transfer window.

So in conclusion licencing is in my opinion

  • Discriminatory against landlords where English is a second language and people without formal education
  • Open to abuse from malicious tenants
  • So expensive that it will deter investment in  improving property
  • An opportunity to increase rent
  • Likely to be ignored by rogue landlords

There will be people out there who will say:  “Well you would say that.  You represent landlords, it is in your interest to protect them”

To which I would reply:

Accommodation Unlimited has been in business for 25 years, we believe in dealing with tenants and landlords fairly.  We have and will continue to stop acting for landlords who do not meet our standards.

We agree with Paul that there is a crisis in the Bristol property market.  We agree that many people are paying too much for substandard property.  We also agree that there are landlords out there who are treating tenants appallingly where we disagree is the methodology used to address this problem. Conscious that this appears to be me on the sidelines whinging here is my proposed solution

  • From 2018 all properties with an EPC rating of F or above cannot be re-let that is already legislation.  Bristol City council should look to bring that forward to 2017 and extend it to E or above
  • All properties that have an EPC rating of E or above must be inspected
  • If the landlord is receiving Housing Benefit and the property is found to be substandard then the landlord should have the Housing Benefit put into an escrow account that will be released only when the property is acceptable
  • The landlord cannot serve a Section 8 notice for rent arrears or a Section 21, if the rent is in an escrow account due to mandatory repairs.  If the tenant leaves of his or her own accord then the property cannot be re-let until the work is done and inspected
  • Should the landlord refuse to comply, the council should prosecute the landlords with the full force of the law

This would be easy and cheap to check as virtually all rented property must have an EPC and there is an on-line database available for FREE add to this the Council Tax and Land Registry database you can ascertain which properties are rented out accurately and cost effectively   Properties with high EPC ratings tend to be in poor repair.  Putting money into an escrow account means that the tenant isn’t in arrears and that there is an incentive to get work done quickly and efficiently. 

I have no doubt that cleverer people than me will shoot down these proposals as ill thought out and unworkable, but there needs to be a debate and it might as well start here.