Liverpool City Council says its landlord licensing scheme has received a “very good response” in its first six months, despite ongoing concerns from letting agents.
The local authority’s initiative came into effect on 1 April this year, making it mandatory for property owners to apply for a licence for every Liverpool rental property in a bid to weed out rogue landlords.
Under the initiative landlords are required to pay £400 per property for a five-year licence, although discounts can be applied for multiple properties and memberships of accredited landlord schemes such as CLASS, and properties must also meet a criteria on fire, electric and gas safety.
With the scheme now coming to the end of its first six months, some letting agents in the city have called for clarification on how the scheme is taking shape so far, and have also suggested some potential investors in the city are being put off by the licensing.
Louis Anastasiou, managing director of Andrew Louis, says: “There’s limited information from the council and the sector does not know what’s going on; we’ve got nothing to report back to landlords.”
Louis suggests some landlords have opted to “sell up” on properties, amid the council’s licensing scheme also coinciding with further legislation and changes being introduced by the government following the Chancellor’s summer budget.
He adds: “Too much legislation coming in at the same time has angered the sector.”
Meanwhile Ian Taylor, lettings manager at Liverpool’s Reeds Rains, also says the city’s lettings industry is “sitting there waiting” to find out how the licensing scheme is impacting, and claims the scheme has already prompted some investors to “reconsider Liverpool” and maybe look to other destinations such as Manchester for properties.
A spokesman for Liverpool City Council says the first six months has been the start of the major scheme which will be intensified over the next six months, adding: “We have had a very good response from private landlords registering for the first part of the application process, and would like to take this opportunity to thank them for doing so. More than 8,000 landlords who between them are responsible for around 36,500 properties have so far signed up and more than 2,000 have already been issued with notices of an intention to grant a licence. We have also identified 500 landlords who have not started the application process and are issuing letters asking them to sign up as soon as possible or risk additional charges.
“In addition, tenants are now able to log on to www.liverpool.gov.uk/landlordlicensing and see if their property has been registered, and we would urge them to do so and let us know if it has not.
“A knock-on effect of the scheme has been a huge increase in membership of our accredited landlord scheme CLASS, which has resulted in 8,500 additional properties being registered and associated gas and electrical checks being carried out, improving standards for tenants. We are also working on finalising a co-regulation scheme.”
