Landlords in Liverpool must now apply for a five-year licence for each of their properties or face hefty fines, following the launch of the city council’s controversial landlord licensing scheme.

Under the scheme, which came into effect on 1 April, landlords must have a licence for each of the properties they own. Before they are granted a licence landlords will have to meet strict criteria set by the council while properties must meet fire, electric and gas safety standards and be in a good state of repair.

Licences will cost £400 for the first property and £350 for each additional property. Meanwhile a rate of £200 per property is available to members of the CLASS Accredited Landlord Scheme and other organisations that opt to enter into the council’s co-regulation initiative. Though no organisations have been confirmed as co-regulators as yet both the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS) are rumoured to be in talks to do so.

Steven Latham, managing director, Concentric Property (a member of ARLA) says: “When landlord licensing was first announced we thought the charge being proposed was excessive so we’re glad to see it is now £200 for accredited agents. As ARLA-registered agents all of our properties are professionally managed.

“For the past few months we have been giving out regular updates to our landlords but we are still fielding enquiries from those who have only recently been made aware of the scheme. There are landlords who may not be living in the city who are unaware of the scheme and we’ve been advising them on the different aspects and potential scenarios it may bring. The fines for not having a license can be up to £20,000.”

Steven says he believes more landlords will now choose to use a property management agent.

He says: “We as a company will act as the licence holder on behalf of our landlords, ensuring all licence conditions are adhered to. By choosing a co-regulated agent landlords can benefit from the discount available as they are able to save money in licence fees. We will continue working with the council to try and reduce these further.”

Louis Anastasiou, managing director of NALS-regulated agent Andrew Louis, says: “We have been in regular discussions with the council and what is quite obvious to everyone is that we all share the same goal. We all want a safe private rented sector (PRS) for tenants. No one wants to have rogue landlords in the industry or, by the same token, rogue letting agents.

“I am pleased the council has listened to our insight thus far and I believe the meetings we have had have been very productive.”

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