A crackdown
on rogue landlords in Southampton is set to be rolled out to other areas of the
city.
Thousands of
shared homes in Southampton are already covered by the licensing scheme that
sees landlords pay the council to assess whether they are safe and
well-managed.
And the
house of multiple occupation (HMO) licensing scheme is now set to be introduced
to another four areas of the city amid concerns that many are being
badly-managed.
Labour City
council bosses first introduced the scheme to the Bevois, Bargate, Portswood and Swaythling wards in 2013 and
since then there have been more than 2,500 applications for licences.
There are
believed to be 4,500 shared homes in those four wards and so far 2,000 have had
licences issued. The council has also launched a crackdown on rogue landlords
in the city with three successful prosecutions brought against owners so far. One,
Askar Miah, was fined £36,000 after inspectors found that one of his seven-bed
homes in High Street did not have working fire alarms, while its escape routes
were blocked.
A council
report said that evidence showed a significant proportion of the 2,000 HMOs in
Freemantle, Shirley, Bassett and Millbrook are “being managed
ineffectively” and consultation on plans to introduce it to the areas received
a positive response from the public although the National Landlords Association
expressed concerns that some landlords may pass on the cost of the fees to
their tenants.
The plans
are now set to be approved at council. A copy of the consultation results is
here
To receive a
licence, landlords will need to submit an application together with a fee. In
the first two months of the scheme the fee will be discounted, £240 for each
HMO with three tenants, £320 for four tenants or £400 for five or more.
If approved,
the scheme will be rolled out in the four wards from October 20, for five
years.
The full
article from the Echo can be read here:
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