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RLA Criticises Landlord Licensing Schemes
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) has criticised local authorities that charge landlords for licenses simply to collect information on the amount of landlords in the area.
RLA Criticises Landlord Licensing Schemes
The body says that these types of schemes are “without reason”. It also describes licensing schemes as a tax on tenants, as landlords sometimes pass the costs onto renters.
The RLA stated its opinion after a letter was sent to all councils in England from the Department for Communities and Local Government, saying that councils already have the power to request information from tenants on a property’s tenure and landlord identity.
The RLA insists that this enables every local authority to build a register of landlords.
It says that this reveals the “expensive folly of licensing”, criticising schemes that oblige landlords to register and charge them for doing so.
The RLA has campaigned for tenants to be asked to identify their landlord on Council Tax registration forms, as this is a more effective way of finding all landlords, including rogue landlords that would never come forward to be licensed.
Chairman of the RLA, Alan Ward, says: “The RLA is calling on councils to now drop the tenants’ tax that licensing has become. They should use the powers they already have to identify all landlords and go after the criminals.
“Councils have always had the power to identify all landlords. This letter is a reminder from the Government that they should use it instead of creating bureaucratic licensing schemes, which tenants ultimately have to pay for.
“Asking tenants to identify their landlords is far more effective in finding and rooting out the criminal landlords who never willingly make themselves known.”1
Does your council require you to be licensed? And do you have to pay?
