Milton Keynes Landlords Claim Second Victory Over Licensing Proposals

Many congratulation to Alex and the team from us all at Property118.

You have shown what can be achieved with a coordinated effort, it's now down to others like you to ensure they put up the same level of resistance in other areas.
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Nice one Alex . Well done. Thanks for all your efforts leading this campaign
As an MK Landlord this is excellent news for my own portfolio and that of my clients.

The council has to their credit been making good strides recently to liaise much more effectively with us in the PRS and reduce the us v them attitude that often prevailed.

Lets hope this positive result reinforces the message that it is in everybodies interests to have a vibrant collaborative PRS all working together to provide safe secure accommodation to all the folks in MK that choose to privately rent.
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Hi, can anyone point me to the ASB data MK used or was reying upon?
Thanks

Wow, what a fantastic result guys! What we need now is to start a campaign??? Where all authorities will change their ways if they really want to work as PARTNERS within the PRS. Does anyone have maybe a copy of the ruling, or like Chris asks. the data?? I would definately like to take this to my next Landlords Forum in Bridgend, Cardiff, Valleys this month.

Congratulations to Alex and other landlords who must have worked so hard for this!!

AA Props - Kev

Thanks Guys.

If you would like to read the various reports prepared by the independent consultants ORS, as well as MKPLA's formal response to Milton Keynes Council's consultation on introducing borough-wide Selective and Additional Licensing, then please follow these links >>

http://tinyurl.com/MKPLA-Response
http://tinyurl.com/MKC-Consultation-Report
http://tinyurl.com/MKC-HMO-Survey-2014

Cheers,
Alex

Chris

The research that ORS did showed that despite the widely held perception that HMOs were the root of all ills when it came to ASB, that the reality was rather different. This along with the fact that the authority has quite a lot of power under statutory instruments available to them already to deal with littering, noise etc. meant that they could not pass the test to introduce licensing under the Housing Act s56 /57. As such if they none the less put licensing in they would potentially be open to a legal challenge for acting unlawfully.

At the meeting we also pointed out to the council the potential unforeseen circumstances of implementing licensing in terms of increased insurance premiums and reduced house values for all constituents in the borough as has been seen in other towns where licensing has been introduced

The people where I live have a rather different perception of this including myself.
We desperately want the council to introduce SHMO licensing.
The house opposite my own has been bought by a landlord who intends to remove the only parking space in converting it to living accommodation.
Further he has converted the lounge into two bedrooms.
We had two people living there for 26 years with two cars which was not too much of a problem. Now we face six complete strangers with six cars and nowhere to park except on a street that is already completely full of cars parking on the foot path.
I am a landlord and own two properties in the road but my houses have off road parking.
We have unanimous support in opposing this unsociable use of space. 31 resident objections out of 38 houses, three councillors, a county councillor and the local council highways officer. Our road simply cannot accommodate any more people is the consensus of opinion.
Never the less the local council planning department decided that this comes under permitted development rights and the council, despite appeals from the residents and councillors, have no desire to introduce SHMO licencing.
Speaking as someone who would have to foot the bill for such a licence and thus I have more to lose than anyone, I think this development is a total disaster for the road and has already caused considerable friction due to the increase in population density.
Already another neighbour (Who was the first to object to this development) has decided to follow do the same thing which will compound a totally unreasonable situation.
I am quite certain that this has cost me at least £20K in lost capital on my properties and I no longer want to live here.
The solution is certainly not to introduce parking permits. Such an action would, in any case, be administered by the very same people who displayed poor judgement in allowing this mess to develop in the first place. The root cause of the problem needs to faced up to which is too high a population density.

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Shears" at "13/11/2014 - 13:53":

Hi Paul.

You make a good argument against this proposed development, but as you say, it is a planning issue NOT a licensing issue. Additional Licensing would make absolutely no difference to the kind of concern you describe. Licensing cannot affect planning rules and vice versa. If it is permitted development under planning rules, then it is permitted development; the emphasis being on permitted.

At some point, most of us will disagree with one rule or another and planning can sometimes be a highly contentious issue, but 'the rules are the rules' - we are all expected to live by them. That is precisely why our Council could not introduce Additional Licensing of small HMOs. The rules say they couldn't, so if they tried, they would be acting unlawfully and end up exposing the taxpayer to an expensive and unwinnable legal challenge.

Reply to the comment left by "Alex Caravello" at "13/11/2014 - 14:05":

Our understanding is that introducing the requirement for a SHMO licence would give the council the option to refuse such a licence on the grounds that this would change the character of the area or some such point.
The council will definitely be introducing SHMO's licencing for another part of the city which has the same problem due to high student population.

Hi Paul

There is no provision in the Housing Act 2004 for an application for a license required by a designation for Selective or Additional Licensing to limit lawful development, or restrict any rights we would otherwise possess under planning, or permitted development rules. Our rights under statute cannot be limited by other acts of government.

This is exactly why landlord licensing is hardly ever the answer to anything. This is being understood more and more at national and local government level. The powers to introduce SL or AL were never intended to be used in the way that many local authorities are using them.