Arriving at the Barking learning centre at 6:34pm yesterday evening myself and my colleague Ryan entered the conference room and met faces of anticipation and trepidation. Another standard sight for a landlord forum. Having not attended one for a while I was excited and anxious to know the outcome from the agenda.
As 7pm grew closer more faces entered the room and I enjoyed taking in the variation of the room, single landlords with just the one property in the Borough scaling up to the seasoned landlord with a healthy sized portfolio. Yvette and Surinder sat as Chair and the evening commenced.
The standard introductions were given and then came the juicy part ‘finance’ the current licensing scheme figures and a display of disbelief, members of the meeting challenging figures put before them, one landlord (an accountant) raising his hand to query the fact that between the period 2016-2017 the income and expenditure balanced exactly £1,004,630 along with other points to the slide on the projector at the front of the room.
The Chair struggled to contain the emotions once the financial representative supplied suggested figures of the new scheme they are waiting for the secretary of state’s reply with the following costs to obtain a selective licence being; part A £470 the councils suggestion to processing fees and part B costs of actual licence £430 but don’t worry Mr Landlord any one considered having displayed ‘good behaviour’ in the current scheme set to diminish on the 31st August 2019 will potentially receive a 50% discount.
Most in the room were finding it difficult to justify how the new scheme which is stipulated to be non-profitable can potentially increase by a huge inflation of 77.9% when the screen in at the front was showing a £4,971 at the end of the current period surely that sum is profit??? With inflation in tow and no further legislative changes where is the justification for such a rise?
One landlord rose up from her seat and passed suggestions of her home county Brentwood Council deeming the schemes useless and unnecessary, why does one Borough so close in area, have thoughts that sit at the other end of the spectrum? Her question to now still remains unanswered.
Amongst the chaos Richard Blanco had entered the room and made an attempt to resume order by advising the audience in front of him that all councils presenting the scheme to the secretary of state are just manipulating the loosely compiled licensing regulations inside of the Housing Act 2004.
Two members of the licence department sat as the representative of the council and in my opinion were like lambs to the slaughter, there was not ample information on offer and the scheme is still in its negotiations.
What did we find out?:
The Secretary of State is due to provide LBBD with their decision by the 17th May 2019
Potential costs for a Selective licence part A £470 part B £430
HMO licences £1200
Additional licence ???? (no consultation has yet been undertaken)
Although this was not a subject covered in the forum I have seen in my agency a big push in applications presented since 2014 with missing details or changes needed being sent the council template non licenced letter and am working with the licence team and my clients to get the loose ends tidied up and remain on the right side of the Borough’s compliance.
And finally the Freedom of Information was incited by at least 40% of the room setting expectations for Gary Jones to produce a detailed and informative record of accounts to the spend seen in the past five years and how much of the income received was application against order charges. Will this be produced at the next forum set for June 4th, we are unsure but one thing is for definite, I am sure that it would be an interesting read for all landlords of Barking and Dagenham and maybe just maybe offer the justification that seems so desperately needed.
Keep your eyes peeled for part two coming soon….
