Nottingham Council follow up letter – Making 350 homeless

Follow up letter to Nottingham City Councillors regarding disastrous Selective Licensing that will force me into making 350 people homeless

Dear Rav & John,

Regarding your letter dated 2 March 2018.

You say you are not sure if I’m aware, but the Council undertook an extensive consultation. No I was not aware of the consultation nor were my many tenants and many landlord colleagues. I’m one of the biggest Housing Benefits landlords in the Nottingham and despite my many weekly conversations with your team, Selective Licensing was never mentioned. Why did you not contact HB tenants, probably the most important people that were and are going to be effected?
One of my colleagues turned up and Councillor Urquhart said she had to leave in 10mins-Was that wise?

Jon, IF the cost was less than  £2pw, do you think we would be moaning?

Where do you get £2pw from?
What about the accreditation cost? Which in my case is £840 EVERY 3 years. (DASH is FREE everywhere else in the East Midlands apart from your City)
The Landlords so far that have had the DASH checks are getting bills of £700 upwards.
Add up the Licence fee £400.
Add the DASH fee £120.
Add the works fee £1000.
Add the Letting Agents set up fee £600.
Add the Letting Agents weekly 10% + VAT of rent fee £15.23 PER WEEK. £791 PER YEAR.
Whose paying for the floor plans you require, the DBS checks, the tenant referencing checks, the insurance loading, PAT testing, landlord training etc? Sort of makes your £2 a week claim very weak.

It will cost us over £3,000 per property in the first year. I may be exaggerating these figures, but you don’t rent  a house thinking you never gonna’ spend a penny on it. You budget for ‘what could happen’.

Please sit down with us & discuss how we are going to do this for £2pw!!! And the conditions too. Worse than any Letting agent with the poshest tenants would ask.

You keep mentioning 2 part fee. It  still got to be paid? Are you advocating finance?

Come look at my business and tell me what I can do with 70 houses, 350 people living in them. Which I manage perfectly well. Give me and my tenants a solution ‘cause I’ve already issued 10 section 21’s which I didn’t really want to do. But the clock is ticking.

You seem to reject everything. Time will tell. I have new boilers kitchens doors etc. Your fees will now take away from that budget. Does that not bother you?

You and David Hobbs seem to be copying the same letter. So you are losing me with your confusing comments which need to be discussed verbally. Real shame when homelessness is at stake.

Please stop mentioning Universal Credit ‘cause you han’t got a clue on that.

And let me tell you for a fact, tenants from Housing Aid referrals Housing Benefit ARE more likely to cause damage. Do you want me to bring 10 Landlords with HB tenants to prove this?

I want Long term tenants, your policies and conditions will be getting them chucked out.

I’m speaking to Letting Agents this morning Your Move, big National Brand, showing them ALL YOUR conditions, they said anyone with more than a few houses cannot physically do all them conditions without a letting agent.

You go through the conditions, add up the time with each one, And times it by a fair number of houses, and tell me if I’ve got the time to do that?

To put houses with a  Letting Agent are fees of £42,000 alone set up fees. This is on top of the £112,000 we mention. Where is the money coming from?

Bigger problem, Letting Agents won’t take my current HB tenants. What now?
They have said with a few houses, yes, but not with the amount of houses I’ve got. Impossible.

Me and some of my colleagues with HB tenants would like a meeting with you. This is very serious & we need a meeting ugently.

I’m shocked that you have not even spoken to Housing Aid yet and understand the impact it’s having on them with Landlords going for eviction because of this Licensing.

I think you should back down now before it does get really messy with lots of evictions and do it on new tenancies.

• You still get your Licensing.
• Current tenants won’t be evicted.
• Landlords won’t be telling the Media in 2 to 5 years Told you so.
• You will be able to manage it better, as you ARE going to struggle doing all current properties.

You haven’t answered the question on Thumbturn locks, the tenants don’t want them ‘cause their kids will let themselves out and get knocked over on the road.

24 hour number?
What if tenants aren’t letting you in?

I’m providing basic good all essentials accommodation let’s say Travelodge. Your conditions now require us to run it like the Marriott. On the same money? And you think £2pw more will cover this? Come on, please.

Who is paying for tenant referencing, inventories, floor plans, checks etc.?

Let me tell you what will happen. I and many Landlords will have to give rent increases to cover this increased cost. A lot of tenants won’t be able to pay this rent increase. We then give them the Section 21. They go homeless and get housed in bed and breakfast which costs THOUSANDS.

This will be the same for the HB tenants that tend to look after the property less, but I don’t have to fix their self-caused damage as not dangerous, but you will make me fix this, so they too will have to be evicted.

I will also call the Nottingham Post to cover and photo the first eviction because of Nottingham Selective Licensing.

Once these HB tenants go, I will do the property up, to the Marriott standard, and get the Marriott standard tenants in, as I have 3 Letting Agent tenants already and they are SUPER. Super posh Letting agent tenants that will be easier to comply with your conditions.
Is this judgement affecting anything you do?
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2018/242.html
We don’t have low housing demand in my areas.

The unanimous CoA decision was “…any selective licensing condition that requires the *provision of new facilities* or that *requires works*, which go *beyond normal non-structural repairs*, were imposed by a local authority in their discretion is unlawful.”

You haven’t answered these questions:

I understand you have 27000 homes.

• Could you if asked, license all your home’s between April and August this year?
• Would you have the funds to spend between £600 and £2000 per house all in 4 months?
• EVERY house?
• Could you with all your existing current tenants comply with all the conditions asked of selective Licensing?
• Would you have the admin staff to do it?
• Would you have the builders to do it?

If they you NCH can’t do this, how can I be expected to do this?

You probably have more staff ratio per houses than I do.

But I do manage my houses well as is, and all new boilers, new kitchens, doors, windows etc.

But if you couldn’t do what is asked of Selective Licensing, how can I be expected to?

I work 70 hours pw now on the tenants houses, admin, managing. I physically could not do or have the time to do these conditions. So I have to leave with a Letting Agent. Problem is, Letting Agent will not take these tenants. What do we do? When my houses come empty, all my future tenants was going be Letting Agent tenants, as I’ve been doing it 20 years & have no more energy to carry on with my current HB tenants, but for now the only option you are leaving me with is giving them Section 21’s.

What if my tenants have signed a tenancy, they’ve  signed this tenancy, as long as don’t have to comply with any future Licensing scheme that current or future authority may bring in. Something like:
The tenant doesn’t give permission for anyone to enter property apart from the Landlord or The Gas safety man, unless anything is dangerous & workmen need to get in quick. Do we now have to break tenancy law?

Where is your answer to where my tenants have caused internal damage? Have we now got to fix these internal doors she has smashed? What do you think is going to happen when we have fixed them and she smashes them again?

Does she deserve to be homeless for that?

What are you on about offer from Housing Aid? You’ve lost me?

Housing Aid can no longer house their tenants with your conditions. I CANNOT believe you haven’t spoke to them yet to find this out.

As said, a meeting is urgently needed to avoid some disastrous homelessness and business’s going bust in the next 2-5 years.

Mick Roberts

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