Landlord slams council for 'making mockery' out of licensing

Landlord Mick Roberts has accused Nottingham Council of double standards over its decision to drop a selective licensing condition.

Roberts had applied for a selective licence for one of his flats in a council-owned block but explains he couldn’t comply with all the conditions because he didn’t have the external gate key after the authority changed the locks two years ago and still hadn’t given him a new key.

As the problem was nothing to do with him, Roberts challenged the council to take enforcement action, reasoning that it would be forced to take this action against itself. He argued that it would either be forced to prosecute him, refund his fee – knowing he couldn’t comply - or remove the condition.

Condition

Nottingham Council has now told him it has dropped the condition, giving him the green light to get a licence. But Roberts isn’t satisfied and believes it’s happy to allow a “flagrant breach” of the rules - as long as it gets its licence fee.

“If a private landlord does this, he has to get tenant keys within an acceptable time frame,” he tells LandlordZONE. “Yet when Nottingham Council changes the locks and has still not given the landlord a key after two years, selective licensing are now saying they will allow that.

Rubbish

“They say if it’s out of the landlords’ control, they will allow breaches,” adds Roberts, who argues that most issues are out of a landlord’s control, such as if a tenant leaves rubbish all over the garden, or causes excessive noise.

“They would prosecute us for that, but because this breach of licensing conditions is the council’s fault, it’s allowed. It makes a mockery of licensing - it’s one rule for landlords, another rule for the council.”

A Nottingham Council spokeswoman tells LandlordZONE: “We understand the keys are held by the city council housing services team as there are other council owned properties in the block. As he doesn’t have control of the gates, we have chosen to vary Mr Robert’s licence, removing the condition that requires him to provide a key to the gate for his tenants.”

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