Landlord licencing scheme boundaries released by Newham Council

the prince of wales gives 4 fingers to his newham surfs.

This is an absolute outrage and I am fuming.
Give Newham council £500 for every property you own (I would have to give them thousands) for absolutely no reason AND get nothing back for it in return!! Just the right to be as you are, a landlord. Is this council out of their mind.
It is so obvious that this is purely just an attempt by the council to raise funds to address their cash strapped position.
For the love of God something has got to be done about this. This interfering, nannying, overbearing, rip off type of government has got to be stopped. Next, people are going to have to get the councils permission just to exist.

Good idea Roger. I've invited Darren Bowen from Leathes Prior Solicitors to take a look at this thread. I doubt that London Solicitors would want to take on Newham Council without a huge fee to compensate their reputational risk. Leathes Prior have a pedigree in taking on and winning against Councils, Darren is a Landlord and Tenant specialist and he is Norfolk based, hence Norfolk prices and no fear of Newham Council. It will be interesting to see what Darren has to say.

We will start with four hundred and then increase it yearly

first gas certs(fair enough) then electric certs/appliances,,then deposit schemes,then energy certs every ten years,now a copy to each new tenant,then if a tenent wants something on the report improved it has to be done.Now a licence/tax.Saw the writing on the wall a few years ago and should of got out.Had an email today from local landlords association about how local council encouraged landlord to take on mentally unstable woman.After a couple of weeks they stopped all the support she was having,several assaults later the owner contacted the council to evict the tenant and was basically told that would be against the law.
I myself let a flat to two young lads the council wanted housed.Long story short,they refused to pay me £1200 they owed,they accused my letting agent of forging their signatures,the police were called and new who was in the wrong and the council finally paid up.Do not be under any illusion of trust in the authorities of any type.

Newham? Newham? Where did I read something about Newham recently? Oh Yes it was here http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/24/london-exporting-council-tenants Reporting on Newham sending coach loads of their homeless people to the West Midlands because they had no homes for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course the logical thing to do is make landlords sell up because it is no longer financially viable to let in an area where they have additional overheads of Licensing. Makes perfect sense.
I really pity our colleagues in Newham and I pity landlords in the Universal Credit pilot areas of the north and those in Scotland who are being banned from letting properties http://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Landlord-banned-from-renting-properties
While I really do pity landlords in these areas I have even more pity for those who are homeless because the authorities just don't get it. Landlords are running a business - no profit - no point!
Just how long it will take for the message to sink in depends on how long people will allow themselves to be deprived on homes!
Mr A - you knew that I would not resist posting on this thread didn't you hahahaha

By the way the Licensing fee in Birmingham began at £500 five years ago and has now increase to £1,150! £850 for a simple renewal!

surely this fine waxwork is worth more than 4 pounds!

So if LL exit the market and properties are converted to normal dwellings; if they are allowed to be taking into account Article 4 etc like flats ; where will all the tenants who can only rent single rooms go!?
UC claimants would have to be accommodated somewhere!
Where will this be and where will they stay.
Especially as UC is reduced for under 35's.
TA will be the only solution.
B & B is far more expensive than other normal accommodation.
Plus if there are no affordable or insufficient property types available claimants can be shipped to where the cheap accommodation is.
This will cause claimants to lose their 'local connection' and then these tenants will have limited opportunity to return to the expensive council area they were bussed out from.
LL will just accept a lower income and invest in 'normal' properties.
This will impact on tenants and the availability of suitable property.
The days of sweating the asset I think are now unviable based on the disgraceful way these councils are behaving.
I thought the deficit was supposed to be reduced.
B & B costs a fortune, far more than HMO accommodation.
If I had the money I would be buying up B & B in cheap coastal places like Margate and Hastings.
We will be going back to the days of housing benefit claimants living in 'sink' coastal towns.
I pity the council tax payers of these coastal towns and shopkeepers as crime goes up.
The dregs of society wil be farmed out to these cheap places.
What a ridiculous situation we as taxpayers, LL and tenants face at the hands of these incompetent councils and silly govt edicts on planning allowances; Article 4 and all that.
Am I glad I am not involved in multi-occupancy property.
Though B & B's would be an attracive proposition if I had the money!!!!

There is more than sufficient accommodation in Newham that is affordable for LHA claimants.
However LL refuse to rent to LHA claimants.
If the govt and councils adressed those issues then there would be no need to allegedly 'socially cleanse' these claimant to cheaper areas.
The reasons LL don't wish to rent to LHA claimants are
!/ Inability to ensure LHA is paid to LL immediately
2/ The loss of LHA if a tenant failed to pass on 2 months of rent before it can be paid directly.
3/ The possibility of clawback of years worth of LHA if it has been paid directly after a tenant failed to pay
4/ The behaviour ot LHA claimants which tends to be of a lower standard that normal decent society expects.
These types tend to be the disruptive families who accrued ASBO's etc.
They tend to be the criminal types.
5/ They tend to engage in criminal type activity
6/ They tend to cause more damage and thefts at a rental property.
7/ They generally cannot qualify for RGI and it could take nearly a year to evict these tenants with the consequent massive detrimental problems to a LL financial position.
The 1st 3 are the principal reasons whymost LL don't wish to rent to LHA claimants.
The others could be considered as sweeping genaralisations.
Irrespective of whether that is the case LL consider these aspects whether it is fair or not.
It would help a great deal if police would prosecute tenants who caused criminal damage and theft at a rental property.
Their continuing refusal to regard these as criminal offences which is what they are and prosecute again puts off LL taking on benefit claimants.
Govt could have major impacts on housing costs if they adressed these issues.
Of course they won't adress ANY of the above issues and consequently the supply of multi-occupancy accommodation will reduce with a consequent increase in the housing benefit.
So much for joined-up thinking!!