Oxford City Council will be launching an additional licensing scheme to tackle Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the city. The Council will be the first in the country to use new powers that were introduced in April this year.
The additional licensing scheme will apply across the whole city and every HMO, apart from certain self contained flats, will need a licence.
An annual licensing system will also be adopted with a requirement that an inspection is carried out before the first licence is issued.
There will also be financial penalties for landlords who try and avoid licensing their properties.
The report into the additional licensing scheme for HMOs was approved at Oxford City Council’s City Executive Board on Thursday 22 July and, subject to Full Council’s approval of the financial matters, it will commence on the 25th October 2010.
Councillor Joe McManners, Board Member for Housing, says: “This is a ground-breaking and ambitious initiative. Local residents in Oxford have told us that the Council needs to do more to control the impact of HMOs and we’ve listened to what they’ve had to say. We’ve tried using all our existing powers but they haven’t been enough to make the difference that is needed. We believe that additional licensing will provide us with those extra powers that we need and that it will have a really positive impact.
“Our aim is to improve the living conditions for tenants within HMOs as they provide the worst accommodation in the City. We also want all landlords to take greater responsibility for managing their properties and ensure that the houses they own don’t blight our neighbourhoods with rubbish and anti-social behaviour.
“Due to the size of the scheme, we will be targeting the highest risk HMOs first. These are the three storey properties and those HMOs where 5 or more people live. We will also be requiring licence applications from all the landlords of those HMOs where we’ve had to take legal action in the past. We’ve estimated it’ll take a year to deal with these high priority HMOs and after that we’ll begin licensing the rest.
“Our experience with licensing the larger 3 storey properties has been very positive and the Council is looking forward to forging closer working relationships with good landlords, creating a level playing field for them and improving the reputation of the private rented sector in Oxford.
“I also want to make it clear that the scheme will be funded through the licence fee and so there will be no extra cost to the Council Taxpayers of Oxford.”
According to Government statistics, Oxford has the 14th highest number of HMOs in England and Wales and only large metropolitan and unitary authorities and some London Boroughs contain more.
They form an unusually high percentage of houses in the city with 1 in 5 of the resident population living in an HMO. The House Condition Survey 2005 reported that HMOs provided the poorest homes in the city and that 70 per cent were unsafe.
HMOs generate over 2000 service requests/complaints a year to Oxford City Council and the number of complaints have risen steadily over recent years, despite surveys indicating many problems go unreported.
They are also associated with issues that affect the neighbourhood such as rubbish and anti social behaviour which can occur because of poor management of the property.
The consultation process for the scheme took place from 9 April until the 25 June through Talkback, Oxford City Council’s website and the Landlords Forum.
The Council already licenses larger three storey HMOs that contain five or more tenants and currently over 600 HMO licences have been issued.
Released on Monday 26 July 2010
