Salford near Manchester is the latest council to go live with a Selective Licensing Scheme after launching its fourth scheme covering 23 roads in the Charlestown and Lower Kersal areas of the city.
This means there are now 533 schemes like it in operation across the UK, The Negotiator can reveal, following research by GetRentr, schemes that will soon be reviewed following the government’s announced review of selective licensing last month.
It has aggregated all of the landlord licensing schemes in the UK into one database and enables agents and property managers to automatically stay on top of licensing compliance.
The Salford scheme covers all types of residential lettings whether they are HMOs or not and will run for five years.
Landlords will pay a fee of £625 per property with a discount of £20 on the price for each subsequent property, and a further discount if the landlord is accredited with Salford City Council.
It is also offering landlords a £150 discount if they register their properties before 15th February 2018.
Consultation
The decision to go ahead with its selective licensing scheme was taken after a two-and-a-half month local consultation during which 68 responses were received including representations from the National Landlords Association and the Residential Landlord Association.
Salford is the latest of the 533 councils to introduce either HMO-only or ‘all property’ schemes within their boundaries, and research by GetRentr shows that are 25 consultations under way or going through the decision process including two announced yesterday, and that a further six schemes are due to start imminently.
Discretionary licensing schemes usually last five years and nine of the 25 consultations are to renew existing schemes due to expire within the next 12 months. The other 16 consultations are in local authorities where licensing is being considered for the first time. Hyndburn in Lancashire, whose selective licensing scheme is due to end on November 30th, is due to make its decision to renew shortly.
“We continue to observe an increase in the number of schemes and consultations, with a clear trend for more focused approach such as Salford,” says Alex Schembri, CTO of GetRentr.
“By targeting smaller areas as opposed to council-wide schemes, local authorities avoid the requirement to get DCLG approval.
“We are also seeing landlords and agents fined almost on a weekly basis, partly due to a renewed interest in enforcement, with the new civil penalties introduced in April. Landlords and agents need to inform and protect themselves more than ever from being caught out with big fines.”
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