A Southwell-based landlord has agreed a £17,500 penalty to Ashfield District Council after failing to license two properties in Sutton in Ashfield. The council introduced a Selective Licensing Scheme in 2017 to tackle poor quality and hazardous properties as well as anti-social behaviour and poorly behaved tenants in parts of Stanton Hill and the New Cross area of Sutton Central. The scheme was extended in 2022.
The scheme places a legal obligation on all landlords with any privately rented properties in the selected area to obtain a licence for these properties.
Ashfield District Council said today that “despite a number of attempts to secure an application from the landlord and agency, including a final warning advising of the consequences of failing to licence the two properties, the landlord still did not submit any application or paperwork required for the properties.”
Council officers visited the two properties and confirmed that they were occupied by tenants. The officers also saw relating to the safety of the properties. The council says that the safety issue is being dealt with separately to the licencing offences.
“It is a criminal offence to let a privately rented property in a designated area without a Selective Licence in place”, John Bennett, Ashfield’s executive director of place, said. “Penalties include prosecution and an unlimited fine or a financial penalty up to £30,000. Enforcement action is always a last result, we will always try to engage with, and support landlords to apply for their license first.
“Selective Licensing has brought real positive changes to the designated areas, it allows the Council to regulate the housing for the safety of both the tenants and the landlords.”
Ashfield District Council says that six financial penalties totalling more than £56,500 have been served on landlords who have failed to licence their property or breached their duties since the start of the current selective licensing scheme in 2022. They are also undertaking a further 10 ongoing investigations for similar offences. The council and landlord have agreed a penalty, negating the need for a court case. The council say that they will not identify the landlord as anonymity was “an agreed condition of them accepting the penalty”.
