Hmo Licensing Laws

[Spirit]

This week Rosie discusses the impact of HMO licensing....

Paul Johnson’s company, PLJ Properties, owns and manages 29 houses in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, most of which sleep five or more tenants. “I know of landlords around here who have horrendous properties,” he says. “Come April 6, I suspect they will be selling up rather than upgrading.”

Johnson has already been refurbishing his properties in anticipation of April 6. Is he going to hand on the extra cost to his tenants? “Our rents are not at the bottom of the market,” he says. He charges about £600 a week for an eight-bedroom house in Jesmond Dene. “We have no plans to put our rents up, and refurbishment on this scale is tax-deductible anyway. But if all the other landlords start putting rents up, we will follow suit.”

Simon Thompson, of student rental website www.accommodationforstudents.com, says: “A lot of three- storey townhouses are let to students. Landlords may have to start building fire escapes and additional bathrooms, or let their houses out to fewer students. It will take the profit out of the business.”

Johnson, who has more than 100 tenants under his various roofs, sees mandatory licensing as a “search and destroy” mechanism for poor landlords. “Some landlords will sell on.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2098-2095516,00.html

[BillyShears]

This week Rosie discusses the impact of HMO licensing....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2098-2095516,00.html

I note the comment that many HMO's are let to students.

Would students be highly mobile, and able to move house easily. Many students will have most of their "stuff" at home with their parents, and have not built up all the huge amount of garbage that comes with having a family. They also are, typically, not rich. In many towns, certainly in Leicester, building of student residences has severely reduced demand. With all these factors, I can't see HMO landlords just being able to "put the rents" up or students may move to houses which currently have voids. This creates a void at the previous property, so the landlord that "raised the rent" will then have to compete on price to fill the room again.

I can't see rents just rising across the board.

Billy Shears

[Imp]

If a couple with children are counted as one household, this should remove a lot of the resistance to families in rented accomodation. One house rented to 5 people will cost the landlord more than one house rented to husband, wife and 3 children.