Liverpool granting licences to Agents and not Landlords?

I just applied for a licence on a new build in the Baltic Triangle. It’s through my Ltd Company and I am sighting a management agency who I use currently. They also offered (for about +£50) to submit on my behalf, but were also very honest about the negatives; i.e. that they would hold the licence and if we parted ways, I might have to apply again.

Annoyingly I already paid the full £300 (early bird + EPC C or higher). It is a 2-part payment process, and I made both payments back to back as I didn’t want to forget to settle the balance! Hopefully I don’t get rejected and loose the full amount…

Phil

I applied for my Liverpool licence last week, I own a student flat in a block but it's managed by a management company They sis want to charge the owners to complete it but sod that, so a few of us got together to share frustration at the process. We did need pieces of information from agent ie EICR and EPC certificate

Reply to the comment left by Gra Rock at 21/06/2022 - 13:34
Do you mind sharing the details of your letting agent that is acting on your behalf please?

Reply to the comment left by Xhemil Piku at 23/06/2022 - 10:28
Homesure in Allerton

Thank you very much for sharing

Do they deal with HMO properties?

Does anyone in the forum know of any management/estate agents in Liverpool that offer full management on HMOs?

Reply to the comment left by Xhemil Piku at 23/06/2022 - 16:12
Not sure on HMO.

Just remembered they had a deadline for 31st May for landlords to elect to use their free service, so they had time to action.

I've just rung Liverpool Council for advice on this matter and after a 20 minute wait I was told they could not connect me to anybody in that department but they did have some answers to frequently asked questions. When I asked who should apply for the license they told me if my estate agent collects rents then the agent should do it. I explained that though my agent collects rents I generally deal with maintenance issues myself and then instruct contractors to do the necessary work so I felt I was a more suited person to be the license holder, I was then told I should email to ask the question.
I sent an email to the email address on the licensing page on the website and received an auto reply telling me to go to the licensing page to get answers to any questions I may have. it also added 'If you are unable to find the answer you require on the website, please log your query via our ‘contact us’ link located on the dedicated webpages and we will endeavour to respond within 30 days.'
However the contact link on the licensing webpage is not a 'dedicated' link to the licensing department, it's a link which asks you to choose which council department you wish to contact and the licensing department isn't listed!
So basically there is no one available to answer your questions by telephone and it would seem that the licensing department are uncontactable by email. Par for the course with Liverpool council!
Incidentally I started completing license applications for some of my properties and found that on average it was taking around 12-15 minutes to complete an application for each property. The only information that was carried forward from one application to the next one was my name and home address, everything else had to be imputed from scratch, even when I was submitting several applications for properties within the same building with virtually identical details. I even had to submit basic stuff like evidence of my home address and photo ID on every single application.
It would seem to me that the application process has been designed by someone who wants to waste as much of a landlord's time as possible. Why ask us to upload a copy of a gas safety certificate and then ask us to input the details from it also?
It seems nonsensical to set up a licensing scheme designed to ensure landlords are managing their properties correctly, but then have such a long-winded application process that eats into a landlord's time so much, therefore giving them less time to manage their properties.
I estimate I will be stuck at my computer for at least three days filling in all the required applications and for some landlords I know it might take a week or two. If only someone at the Council had had the brains to suggest that those landlords who obtained licenses last time could forward updated EPCs, EICRs and GCSs and simply renew their licenses. But as I say, that would take some brains....

Hot off the press... an e-mail from LCC today:

"Who should be the licence holder?
The licence holder needs to be the most appropriate person out of everyone involved in the management of the property. Where an agent manages the property and collects the rent the agent should be the licence holder."

And as LCC have evidently misjudged the impact,
"Early bird discount
The early bird discount period has now been extended for a further month until the 31st July 2022. Please apply as soon as possible to qualify for this discount."

Reply to the comment left by Gra Rock at 24/06/2022 - 17:13
Seems LCC don't understand the fundamental concept of "agent". An agent managing a property and collecting rent when doing so is merely REPRESENTING THE LANDLORD; they are NOT doing it in their own right. It is the Landlord who has the responsibility for the management of the property and to whom the rent must be paid. The Landlord is naturally the most appropriate person to be licence holder in most circumstances irrespective of the degree of delegation to an agent.
This utterly bizarre condition can and should be challenged - we don't want this to become an established practice that other council's copy.
Anyone ever come across any other council trying to insist on this before now ??