A Portsmouth landlord has launched an online petition in a bid to stop councils using heavy-handed criteria when designing selective licensing schemes.

Simon Fletcher wants the government to revoke a 2015 order which allowed it to define additional conditions now used by councils to justify some “insidious” schemes. This would cut the number of conditions from six, back to the original two: areas of low housing demand or those suffering significant anti-social behaviour.

“It’s scandalous that most of these schemes are justified on criteria defined through secondary legislation lacking any parliamentary scrutiny,” says Fletcher, who is committee member for licencing at Portsmouth & District Private Landlords Association.

One contentious condition is that a council can consider it appropriate to undertake HHSRS inspections of a significant number of homes in the area and that a general improvement in housing conditions will result, explains Fletcher. However, Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004 doesn’t provide councils with powers of entry for precautionary inspections - unlike with HMOs - but only where entry is ‘necessary’ which will require grounds relating to each property, such a report by a tenant or neighbour, or poor condition being visible externally.

Over-interpreting

“Some councils appear to be over-interpreting what powers are construed through the 2015 Order and acting as if the Secretary of State unilaterally re-defined Part 3 of the Act, granting them additional powers of entry that ignores tenants’ rights,” says Fletcher.

He argues that because selective schemes apply to small, designated areas that don’t map to the natural boundaries of a local PRS market, they create an unfair market distortion. “Landlords operating inside the designated area lose competitiveness to those whose property is within the same local market but outside the designated area, irrespective of the quality of the homes being let,” he tells LandlordZONE.

Fletcher says these schemes drive PRS investment away, reducing the supply of rental homes and displacing vulnerable low-income renters. He hopes to get to 10,000 signatures, when the government must respond to the petition here.

Sign the petition: Revoke The Selective Licensing of Houses (Additional Conditions) Order 2015 - Petitions‍