Acorn campaign group reveals 44% of local HMOs not licensed by council

Renters’ union Acorn has inadvertently highlighted the unfairness of landlords paying for licence fees when poor enforcement means many rogue landlords simply refuse to do so, happily dodging the high fees and paperwork.

Its Cambridge outpost says the problem of unlicenced HMOs leaves renters vulnerable and is now campaigning for the authority to take action on the issue of unlicensed HMOs, which it has discovered was well known within the council.

Acorn has started a petition and is demanding that the council commits to having at least two full-time staff to work on the issue of HMOs, publishes a timeline to achieve full licensing, and works to get all HMOs in Cambridge licensed.

A spokesman told CambridgeshireLive: “When we found out that the council was aware that there were more than 600 unlicensed HMOs in Cambridge city, we wondered why that number was so high.

“We believe that everyone deserves a safe home to live in and it’s local authorities’ responsibility to ensure that everyone’s got that safe home.”

Inspections

The council says the total number of licensed HMOs in the city now stands at 808. A spokesman explains: “We estimate there may be a further 640 licensable properties and will continue our work, including proactive inspection, to confirm that those properties are safe and suitable and whether they need to be licensed as an HMO.”

The Mandatory scheme began in 2018.

He adds: “We eagerly await the introduction of the government’s proposed rental property portal, which will enable us to more easily identify licensable HMOs and crackdown further on criminal landlords.”

Cambridge’s figure does not seem particularly high when compared to other areas of the UK; Birmingham Council recently revealed that the city could have 8,000 HMOs without a licence.

Read more about Cambridge HMOs.