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Latest news and updates from Safer Housing at Nottingham City Council
 'New look' private rented sector landlord bulletin for December 2019
Welcome to our updated bulletin on all things private rented housing. We hope you like it!
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A message from David Walker, Head of Safer Housing and ASB.
"I want to thank all the landlords and property managers who have worked with us in 2019. We have seen some great partnership results and have supported certain landlords to improve their homes.
"The teams at Safer Housing are here to help you, to offer support and information where we can. Licencing is one of things we do but we also want to work with you. We have some exciting engagement opportunities coming up in 2020 – you can find out more about these in the January newsletter.
"Let’s continue to work together to improve housing in the rented sector as we head into 2020."
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We are going into the second year of our Selective Licensing scheme and we have received over 19,000 applications - with hundreds more coming in every month.
We are currently working our way through these applications, and some of you have asked when final licences will be issued. We have always planned for the issuing of licences to go into the second year of the scheme, so there is no need to worry if you haven't got your final licence yet. We are working through them and you will get them soon.
You can get an update on all our licencing schemes here.
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Do you own or manage a block of flats in Nottingham?
Well, if you fall within the Selective Licensing boundary then you may be able to get a new Block Licence. This means you won’t have to apply for a licence for each individual flat, but you could have one for the whole building.
This is a new and specific licence with some extra conditions to meet. It's for blocks with two or more flats in a building - all with the same management and control. The block can include HMOs, but they would require their own licence too.
There is also a different cost scale for this new licence.
You can find out more about the block licences and fees here
Find out what the conditions are for a block licence here
Applications are by paper only, to get yours - email selective.licensing@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
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It has been a busy few months for the enforcement team, we not only visit unlicensed properties, or hazardous homes every day, but we've taken some Landlords and Property Managers to court for not licensing their properties.
Below are some of the cases we have taken to court recently.
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A Landlord and Property Manager were fined a total of over £34,000 for failing to licence properties. Landlord Dexter Blackstock was fined over £25,000 including costs and a victim surcharge, for 12 offences of failing to license under Selective, Additional and Mandatory Licensing schemes.
His property manager Paul James was been fined nearly £8,000, including costs and a victim surcharge, for failing to licence 10 properties, under the same three schemes. He managed these homes on behalf of Mr Blackstock. Our teams also found some of homes were unsafe, in one case one of the homes had no smoke alarms.
You can read more on this case here!
In another case, a Nottingham Landlord and his Property Manager have pleaded guilty to numerous offences under the Housing Act.
Safer Housing and Nottingham City Council's Trading Standards team are prosecuting Azam and Sons Property Limited, its Director ‘Yusif McCallum’ and the Property Manager “Nottingham HMO Ltd” under the Housing Act 2004 and Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPR’s) related to the failure to manage the property legally and keep it in repair.
Sentencing has been scheduled for March 2020,
Read the full news story here!
You said, we did!
After landlords suggested we create an anonymous tip line - Safer Housing has done just that! Anyone can make a report - do you know a landlord who doesn’t have a licence? Maybe they aren’t looking after their properties and it’s unsafe for tenants? You can report this to us completely anonymously online.
You can anonymously report to us here.
APPLY NOW!
Remember if you don't have a licence, now is the time apply.
Landlords who didn’t apply on time when the scheme was launched, can face rent repayment orders & enforcement penalties for not licensing their property.
We always say, it's better for you to contact us before we have to contact you.
Apply for one of our three licencing schemes here
Thanks to feedback from tenants and landlords, we have launched our new website.
The content has been re-worked, making it easier to use and giving answers to the questions you have asked us. There are lots of tips, advice and information on all things privately rented housing.
Let us know what you think - take a look on the pages and give us some feedback on the content.
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/privaterented
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