Nottingham Council – Why do you refuse to work with Good Landlords?

I have a freehold house with no mortgage in the SL area. Despite paying for and submitting a copy of the title register from the Land Registry stating 'Lender(s): None' they still rejected my application for not including details of my lender.

This problem isn't just impacting leasehold properties!!

Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 19/12/2018 - 18:55
I wonder if in a few years this whole debacle will be the new 'PPI'?
"Were you a good landlord wrongly demonised by the LHA during in the era of selective licencing and HMO licencing?
Did it cost you thousands of pounds to get through it and did your health suffer due to the stress it caused? Claim now!!"
No, probably not but it should be!! As ever, most of the rogue landlords will probably not be touched by all this because they will be under the radar.

Reply to the comment left by jonr at 20/12/2018 - 09:51
Yes that's what they've been doing.
I've had 9 rejected too for wrong lender. I told them in June, my mortgage lender is not on there, a verbal chat with Man in command said No problem. I had no response to my email asking what do I put as application won't let me carry on without putting a lender in, so I had to lie & make one up. Licensing took my money knowing they was gonna reject. And they have now rejected insisting I spend 20 mins to re-submit info on STUFF THEY KNOW ANYWAY, as they are doing Land Registry checks on every house.

From what I have read of landlords' experiences with this Council, I'm really glad my HMOs are elsewhere! Where they have demonstrated clear incompetence, eg no mortgage on an HMO and a copy statement from Land Registry saying "Lender: None" and the application is rejected because no lender has been shown, I reckon you could invoice them for your time and if they don't pay, take them to the small claims court. What a shower!

Reply to the comment left by Anne Nixon at 20/12/2018 - 16:02
Yes, I have said that maybe in a few years, the council Licensing officers (Although some are now), will say What mess did we cause?
Other council departments have said the Licensing scheme has gone too far.
I din't think they envisaged the damage they have cause to the GOOD houses GOOD tenants who did & have done nothing wrong-Who now have less funds & less time & more hassle, whereby previously these tenants were left alone.
Most tenants in Nottingham have had rent increase for it.
As I understand it now, the Licensing officers have now been told to stop telling tenants it only costs the Landlord £3pw. And one of the architects of the scheme, Councillor Jane Urquhart who was telling everyone it's only £3pw has gone-I still don't know the reason why.

They may & will get some bad landlords houses, but they never expected the damage to the majority it has caused.
They spending millions having to buy houses to house the homeless that a lot of Licensing is causing. It's bewildering.

Reply to the comment left by Martin Thomas at 20/12/2018 - 16:56
It's shocking, I'm spending time on Licensing paperwork when I should be spending time on sourcing new boiler for tenant.

Hi Mick,
I totally agree with your frustrations. I also am affected by the Nottingham scheme. The focus on the licensing dept is clearly not to improve the standard of homes, but instead it is to create a massive database, employing about 90 staff, paid for by landlords. The 90 staff are there to process the applications, not to inspect homes.
I am pretty sure that the scheme is in breach of the GDPR, Principle 3 of which talks about Data Minimisation, which states that they should only keep data which is absolutely necessary for their task. Knowing who the mortgage provider is, or who our insurer is has nothing to do with them. Similarly, they do not need the majority of the information they have requested, which falls foul of the GDPR.
Unfortunately, if we don't provide it, we don't get a licence. This unlawful activity by the Council will result in decent landlords being prosecuted for minor infractions, such as Gas Safety slipping by a day because tenant won't let the plumber in, whereas those landlords who don't apply for a licence will rarely be prosecuted as it will be too hard to find out who they are.
But as I am busy repairing a house that a tenant ruined, I haven't got time to challenge the GDPR compliance. Once I have some free time, I intend to get most of the data they hold about me deleted.

Reply to the comment left by Jessie Jones at 22/12/2018 - 08:46
That's the thing.

All this info is not helping the tenant nor improving the already good houses.

Yes & we have to accept what they ask for & what License they issue.
I can't wait for them to refuse one on stupid reason like Landlord can't solve giving them the mortgage Lender, then the tenant has to be given notice & go to the homeless & say she's really happy there with the house & with the Landlord & the Landlord happy with her, yet Licensing have caused this to happen through paperwork procedures & bureaucracy.

I've got a few I may test the water on, cause it's mind-boggling, some Landlords are saying It was bad enough the £780, but they are now saying They wish the Council would just take our money, as since then, it's been torture.

And that's it again, approx 19,000 Landlords/houses have not come forward, whereas us 13,000 Landlords that have come forward & paid are being run through the mill.

Yes, I've done the opposite of u. I've let some houses slip, cause been doing Licensing admin.

I applied 6 months ago and have been told it will take up to another 6 months to process.
I've done everything by the book, met all their requirements and complied with all timescales, do I get a years refund?

Mick, I think you would get more traction by sending your letter to the major newspapers. I bet one of them would take it up as it's clearly a scandal.
I do empathise with you.