Licensing schemes criticised by Property Tribunal

[modellingman]

An interesting report from Landlordzone

A First Tier Property Tribunal has slammed Nottingham Council for covering large swathes of the city with licensing schemes rather than targeting rogue landlords, a ‘temptation’ it says is faced by other local authorities.

Justice for Tenants brought a case on behalf of a tenant couple who applied for a £12,946 Rent Repayment Order after they discovered the property in St Jude’s Avenue (main picture) did not have a licence. However, the tribunal reduced the award to 90% and criticised ‘blanket schemes’.

After ruling that the offence of not having a selective licence was not unduly serious on its own “when taking account of the range of potential offences such as harassment or unlawful eviction” the tribunal at first reduced the award to 40%.

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Taking the landlord’s financial circumstances into account – less than £2,000 in savings – and the fact she had only rented out the property for 41 months due to a move abroad for her husband’s work, the tribunal reduced the award to £774.

It added: “The purpose of a rent repayment order is to deter landlords from unlawful action and to prevent repeat offences…she is not letting property at the moment and there is little chance that she will do so in the foreseeable future.”

Unfortunately, the journalist has not quite fully explained the numbers.

On a technicality of the relevant legislation, the maximum claim that can be made under a rent repayment order (RRO) was determined by the Tribunal to be £12,909.84, slightly less than the amount of £12,946.00 set out by the tenants in their claim. The tribunal found the landlord had committed an offence in not obtaining a licence, but taking into account the circumstances of the offence, reduced this by 40% to £7,745.90 which is in contrast to the tenant's claim for a maximum reduction of 15%. After taking into account the landlord's financial circumstances, which the Tribunal is obliged to do under the legislation, the £7,745.90 was further reduced by 90% to just £774.59 plus £300 for the tenant's application costs.

The Tribunal's judgement is here.

modellingman