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30th January 2012

Oxford council starts licensing every HMO from today

Oxford City Council  has started licensing every House in Multiple Occupation as from this week – with the decision proving highly divisive. Landlords who fail to comply could face prosecution and a £20,000 fine.

Letting agents and landlords alike have called the selective licensing scheme ‘draconian’, while the Oxford Mail reported claims that landlords would evict ‘hundreds’ of tenants who share properties.

Oxford Council now requires every landlord in the city who owns a property where there are three or more unrelated tenants to get an HMO licence. There aim is to licence around anothr 4,000 properties. 

The council, the first local authority in the country to introduce a HMO scheme beyond the mandatory one covering the whole of its area, says the new policy will involve licensing approximately 5,000 properties in total. The scheme was rolled out last year and around 900 homes have been licensed.

The council wants to restrict HMOs to one in five properties on any 100-metre stretch of road.

Bob Urwin, owner of Martin & Co, one of the city's biggest letting specialists has said this will badly hit supply of student properties and also groups of other sharers, including keyworkers such as nurses and teachers. He claims that some landlords will not want to go to the expense and trouble of obtaining a licence, and they will simply choose tenants who form single households.

Mr Urwin said, "The demand for shared housing within the city is extremely high.  Oxford cannot afford to lose those properties that cater for this demand.  The council did consult before launching this scheme but, unfortunately, have not listened.

"Martin & Co have long called for the licensing of all letting agents rather than properties. We are qualified professionals and should be able to deal with sub-standard properties or irresponsible tenants.  If our management is not up to scratch, then take our licence away." 

But Joe McManners, member for housing at Oxford Council, said: “HMOs have long been recognised as being a particular problem in the city, with many examples of poor-quality homes and in some cases being poorly managed. These damage the reputation of good landlords and we are determined to put this right, and stop those doing the right thing being undercut by cowboys.

“The private rented sector is hugely important to the residents of Oxford, not just in terms of providing much-needed accommodation, but also with the impact that it can have on local communities, and licensing every HMO will help drive up standards for everyone.”

Others believe the council already has sufficient powers to tackle any isolated problems caused by the very small minority of irresponsible landlords or mismanaged properties.

From February 24, the city council will be implementing another change in its quest to control the number of shared HMO rental properties.

It will become one of the growing number of local authorities using Article 4 Directions, requiring landlords with properties currently let to a single household to seek planning permission for change of use if they plan to let the property out to a small group of sharers in future.