On 6th July we reported on the case of Northumberland Mews Ltd V Thanet District Council where a landlord was appealing against the imposition, by the council, of 5 separate civil penalties for failure to licence 5 flats in a block of flats and where the landlord argued there should just have been 1 civil penalty imposed because it was the whole block that was the Part 3 house under the 2004 Housing Act.

However you phrase it - “social value”, “place making”, “safer streets”, “stronger communities” “regeneration”, “levelling up” or simply the more transactional “bang per buck” - the destination is the same ….. better outcomes for residents.

The landlord of a private rented sector property in Lewisham and their property manager have had fines handed down by Bromley Magistrates for failure to comply with a council notice requiring them to repair a leak from the bathroom ceiling at the property.

This will be the fourth round of funding from the Govt's Safer streets fund and is the first such round to also accept funding bids from eligible civil society organisations - such as Her Centre in London - awarded £140,000 to help provide support and counselling to victims of sexual harassment, assault, rape and stalking enabling them to "recover the confidence to live lives free of fear".

Buy to let mortgage provider Paragon Bank reports that 42% (figure provided by BVA-BDRC insights consultancy) of private rented sector landlords in a survey had no awareness of upcoming residential minimum energy efficiency standard requirements and a further 28% had some awareness but "don't understand the details".

Estate and letting agents Hamptons have published research showing the almost exponential growth in the level of rents paid nationally by tenants in Great Britain which in the first half of 2022 amounted to £31 billion and and is set to hit £63 billion by the end of the second half of the year.

The Home Office has, in collaboration with local fire and rescue services and the national Fire Kills safety campaign, produced a safety leaflet. The leaflet supplements Govt advice contained in their main Fire Safety in the Home leaflet.

The Building Safety Act came into force on 28th June but the secondary legislation giving effect to its provisions came into force on 21st July and the Govt has published accompanying guidance for leaseholders about the financial protections now available to them under the law.

Extra funding (£4 million this year instead of the £3 million in previous years) has been made available for front line organisations supporting vulnerable people with navigating the legal system and who don't have legal representation.

In our 24th June article, bad actors are bad for business - including in the private rented sector, we referenced a criminal case that was being heard before Canterbury Crown Court and which centred around the illegal eviction and harassment of tenants at properties in Margate.

The landlord of an unlicensed HMO in the Harrow area of London has been convicted at Willesden magistrates court of breaching a council prohibition order for the second time (he was originally prosecuted and found guilty of the same offence in 2019)

The Nottingham Central branch of letting and managing agents Belvoir (Nottingham Lettings Ltd trading as Belvoir Nottingham Central - BNC) has had their fine for breach of residential property management regulations reduced to £1,788.20 after appealing to the property tribunal.

As long as private rented sector selective licence schemes exist it is likely that push back (often angry, sometimes constructive) from some quarters in the landlord community will also exist. The oft cited “it’s a tax on landlords” is a case in point...

A discount on the £500 per property selective licence fee allowing landlords to operate a private rented property in the city will terminate at the end of this month.

On Thursday 21st July a "learning event", jointly hosted by Liverpool City Council and the central primary care network, will be held at The Florrie in Dingle from 11.00 a.m. until 4.00 p.m. The primary care network is a group of 9 GP practices that work together to improve health inequalities for their patients and the event is aimed at residents, communities and partner agencies seeking to support tenants living in unacceptable conditions.

Leicester will see a new selective licensing scheme covering 3 areas of the city. The first area covers parts of Westcotes, Fosse, Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields wards. The second will cover Stoneygate and the third will cover part of Saffron ward.

Manchester council has announced that, whilst there are 7 currently operating property licensing schemes in Manchester, a public consultation will start on a further 8 new selective licensing schemes in the city comprising a total of 1,884 privately rented properties.

In our 17th June article on rental reform we wondered whether the then legislative timetable would be too short to get reform formalised into an act of parliament (scheduled for March 2023) given the domestic and global headwinds the Prime Minister's then administration would be dealing with. Well, as it turns out - if a week is (used to be) a long time in politics then 3 weeks is an aeon and the NRLA seems to agree.

At a council cabinet meeting on 6th July, Gedling borough council approved "phase 2" of their selective licence regime which extends licensing of privately rented properties to the areas of Colwick, Carlton Hill and Daybrook and Newstead Village. The phase 1 "pilot" selective licensing scheme was in the Netherfield area of the borough.

Following the sacking of the now former DLUHC secretary of state, Michael Gove MP, one property related organisation suggested (when discussing the instalment of Mr Gove’s successor Greg Clark MP) that perhaps this could lead to a resetting of the Government’s relationship with the private rented sector and see the end of “anti landlord rhetoric”.

Cornerstone Chambers is running a series of free webinars covering selective licensing and aimed at local authority officers. Mandatory, additional and selective licensing are often part of local authority strategic long term planning but can also involve complex issues of law and practice especially regarding implementation and enforcement of a local authority's property licensing regime.

The two landlords - one, the director of a local property letting and management company and the other a property manager have been ordered to pay over £9000 in fines, costs and victim surcharges after they failed to comply with a Request for Information Notice under the 2004 Housing Act.

The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) was yesterday (5th June 2022) to hear the landlord's appeal in the case of Northumberland Mews Ltd v Thanet District Council where the council had imposed 5 civil penalties on the landlord for not licensing 5 flats that they operated in a block of flats as required by the council's selective licensing scheme.

The Dept for levelling up, housing and communities has announced the launch of its Supported Housing Improvement Programme (SHIP), a scheme designed to deal with rogue landlords who provide accommodation to vulnerable tenants at extortionate rents but provide little support in return.

Two new selective licence schemes in Burnley will go live on 21st July 2022 and run until 20th July 2027.

Birmingham city council has announced that today it has launched a public consultation on a proposed additional licensing scheme to cover around 12,000 smaller HMO properties across all 69 wards in the city. The city already has an existing mandatory licensing scheme covering around 4,000 larger HMO properties (5 or more occupants in different households).

Liverpool council has extended the early bird discount period for landlords applying for a selective licence under the council's new licensing scheme until 31st July 2022.

Some of the immediate reactions, from the private rented sector at least, to the release of the recent rental reform white paper have certainly been a little mixed. To be fair though, that’s always the case with below the line commentary, whatever the name on a publication’s masthead.

The landlord of a Salford property which had been converted into 5 self contained flats plus a ground floor flat without a bathroom and a basement flat with its own entrance has been convicted of 2 housing offences by magistrates.