Landlords ‘sleepwalking into huge fines’ as just 15% sign up for city’s licencing

Birmingham landlords who fail to sign up to the city’s new selective licensing scheme have been warned they’re sleepwalking into being hit with a big fine.

With only a few days before enforcement of the new scheme takes effect – the UK’s biggest, covering up to 50,000 properties across 25 wards, it’s believed that only 15% of landlords have so far applied.

The slow take-up has been blamed in part on several landlord and property Facebook groups where members have urged landlords not to bother.

Landlords Licensing & Defence says since the scheme is already in place there are no excuses for not having a licence; it will be a criminal offence if they have not completed an application by 4th September.

Housing enforcement and casework director, Des Taylor, warns: “There is no reasonable excuse for not making the application, no matter what you are waiting for or are lobbying the council. Any social media group that tells you something different should not be followed.”

Well meaning

Compliance expert Phil Turtle (pictured) tells LandlordZONE that the “advice” being given is by well-meaning non-experts, many of whom are landlords who don’t like the selective licensing scheme and want to try to scupper it.

The firm now wants to warn landlords of the danger they are sleepwalking into, based on extremely poor peer advice.

Says Turtle: “Each of them faces a fine of £5,000 to £15,000 based on what we see with other councils.

“Councils treat failure to licence as one of the most heinous crimes anyone can commit and although it is a criminal act with the penalty at level five on the criminal scale (unlimited fines) most councils instead issue civil penalty fines which they get to keep as a massive revenue stream.”

LandlordZONE has contacted Birmingham Council for an update on application numbers.