At my wit's end! Landlord license

Achilless

I am in the process of buying a BTL flat (non-HMO) and it is in a London borough with (almost) 100% landlord licensing. Their website is not very clear on what is mandatory and what is "recommended" so to speak.

They have a comprehensive property standards document, which among other things says that a bedroom needs to be minimum 6.5sqm to be considered as one.

The flat I'm buying is a 2 bed with the smaller bedroom 6.33sqm in area.

So I emailed the council, referring to the specific section of the property standards document and asked if it was a mandatory minimum (ie I couldnt let it out as a 2 bed flat) or a recommended (good to have) standard.

Their first response was -

"This is recommended standards and we would advise it would need to be between 6.5 - 9.5 square metres for at least 1 person to be able to use the room as a bedroom."

So I replied saying I wasn't any clearer and they responded -

"Please refer to the attached document Standards for Private Rented Property" Which is basically the exact same document I referred to when asking the question.

So I asked again and their response is -

"I can confirm that this is a mandatory requirement, as it is a set government stipulation. If per say, you did not meet the set the conditions in the proposal set less than 10%. We will be able to exercise this to adhere to the set guides in place."

Could anyone please decipher what they might be trying to say in their last response?

I asked my conveyancing solicitor if he could ascertain whether it was a mandatory minimum or not but he declined and said they aren't experts on that.

I'm an experienced landlord but only houses and not in this particular borough. The other boroughs have mandatory minimum property standards but only for HMOs. Their selective licensing regimes have much simpler guidance and more helpful licensing departments.

Will be grateful for any help at all!

tacpot12

I can't decipher it, because the English is not written well enough. I suggest you go back and ask them to explain it better as you can't understand what they are saying.

pramsay13

Very clumsily written.
It sounds as though it is mandatory but if you are within 10% they will not enforce it.
Will this be a deal breaker?

flashg67

that's gobbledygook to me. Are they saying there's 10% leeway that they will accept?

And it's per se ....

Achilless

tacpot - I’ve already asked 3 times I want to get it in writing as 2 people will say 2 different things if you ask them on the phone.

pramsay and flash - Gobbledegook indeed. It is a deal breaker as the numbers only makes sense if I’m able to advertise and rent it out as a 2 bed flat. And the 10%, it’s not clear whether they mean 10% leeway on the property standards as a whole or 10% on each standard.

To be honest I find it hard to believe that it’s mandatory as the flat is 1 of 20 in the block and more than half are let out. I didn’t disclose the exact address in my enquiry as I didn’t want to inadvertently land the current owner landlord in any potential trouble.

dimbo61

The Government have now set out the size of a bedroom for an adult as 6.5m2
So if you own a HMO which has a bedroom that is less than 6.5m2 you can't rent it out to a single adult.
However you are buying a 2 bed flat which has I hope 2 bedrooms, one bathroom and a living room.
So unless you are renting the flat to two separate people under two separate tenancy agreements IT might not be a problem.
However the layout of this small room may make it unsuitable to rent to one person.
Has it got built in wardrobes ? Window ? Room for a bed ?

Achilless

It's not an HMO (and I made that very clear in my email to the council) as I have absolutely no desire to go down that rabbit hole of regulation. I will be letting it out on a single AST only.

Yes, it's a proper 2 bed ground floor flat with 2 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom and a separate kitchen. And a well maintained communal garden.

The typical tenant profile for this flat in the area are young working couples (no kids) or couples with one or two babies (infant/toddler) and if the property standards are mandatory for non-HMOs then the maximum would be 2 adults, no more.

Not awkwardly shaped just a rectangle. No built in wardrobe but yes a window looking out to the communal garden and a small double bed that the vendor is leaving back.


Maybe I'll just walk in tomorrow and try to see someone in the licensing team in person!

dimbo61 wrote: »

The Government have now set out the size of a bedroom for an adult as 6.5m2
So if you own a HMO which has a bedroom that is less than 6.5m2 you can't rent it out to a single adult.
However you are buying a 2 bed flat which has I hope 2 bedrooms, one bathroom and a living room.
So unless you are renting the flat to two separate people under two separate tenancy agreements IT might not be a problem.
However the layout of this small room may make it unsuitable to rent to one person.
Has it got built in wardrobes ? Window ? Room for a bed ?

Yalpsmol

The last response sounds like it came from a non-native English speaker. Or maybe someone was very tired or hungover. Makes no sense. I would reply asking for them to rephrase. Maybe not to the same person though (if its an individual email rather a generic department one) as they may reply again in no clearer terms.

anselld

The problem is you will get a different reply every time you ask the question and every time you apply for a license. Even if you get a written reply to say it is ok now, they may not honour that in future. If the room is outside the spec they are not obliged to apply discretion consistently over time.

I wouldn't buy that one knowing it is outside the spec for licensing unless there is some fallback if you get unlucky with a Council jobsworth ( move a stud wall etc).

Achilless

From the property standards document -

---

In assessing space standards all persons occupying the property irrespective of age should be counted.

Number of Bedrooms Max. No. of Persons
1 bedroom 2 persons
2 bedrooms 4 persons

Maximum occupiers per room based on floor space
9.5 sq m or more 2 persons
6.5 to 9.5 sq m 1 person(of any age)
Less than 6.5 sq m Zero persons

---

Anyway, this is probably a no go for me. There's no dearth of properties in the market, I'll stick to boroughs that have more helpful licensing departments. I have no quarrel with strict licening requirements but at least they should make it easy to understand or have staff who can communicate clearly.

It's a lovely flat and maybe destined for an FTB and that's probably what the council want as well!

muhandis

I would run a mile from doing business with this borough, simply on the basis of this nonsense response

I can confirm that this is a mandatory requirement, as it is a set government stipulation. If per say, you did not meet the set the conditions in the proposal set less than 10%. We will be able to exercise this to adhere to the set guides in place.

If they can't answer a simple enquiry intelligibly, I can't imagine that getting and maintaining a landlord license will be any less of a headache. Stick to the councils who have the capacity to run a selective licensing scheme properly.