Ealing Council consultation on expanded licensing of privately rented properties
Campaigning and Policy

William G
William G
17 Thanks
51 Posts
2 years ago
0

Dear all,

I'm posting this here because there is a deadline for consultations coming up on Ealing Council's proposals to expand their selective/additional licencing in the borough. The current nationwide Mandatory HMO Licence is for properties with 5 or more people living in them, however Councils are taking advantage of local powers given to them in order to push "additional or selective" licences that cover properties with fewer than 5 occupants.

The current "additional" licencing Ealing council have set is for HMOs with 4 or more occupants. They are now proposing to lower this to 3 or more occupants, meaning many more Landlords of flats or small properties are going to be adversely affected.
They are also tripling the coverage of "selective" licencing which covers ALL privately rented homes, from the current 5 designated wards to 15 designated wards in the borough. Meaning even non HMO landlords are going to now require licences.

These additional and selective licences are frowned upon by mortgage lenders and just by having a licence, you will have access to fewer lenders and the interest rates will be higher than properties without a licence. There is no regulation in the lending space for Landlords and lenders simply see having a licence as a risk due to the added complications it puts on both the Landlord and the lender should they ever need to repossess the property.

I have spoken to multiple Buy-to-Let lenders now and I have confirmed this is the case, Licences are working against Landlords so we need to fight against the ever tightening council proposals to ensure we are still profitable when our mortgage term expires. Lenders also heavily discriminate against properties rented as HMOs but that's another matter that needs dealing with separately.

For a link to the Ealing council page please go here: https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201042/current%5Fconsultations/2792/consultation%5Fon%5Flicensing%5Fprivately%5Frented%5Fproperties%5Fin%5Fealing

Councils are notoriously sneaky when it comes to gradual changes and a lot of the times we will not even be made aware of the consultations and changes until it is too late. This will start happening in all the boroughs so we need to really be ready to act against it. I would also ask that NRLA do their part with lobbying or whatever they can do to improve lending regulation in relation to the constant changes. Landlords are getting fewer and fewer lenders and much higher interest rates due to the level of scrutiny in the name of "Safer and better private renting". It isn't right.

Many thanks,

William

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