Date Published 01 February 2022
Selective License scheme
A selective license scheme for private rented properties was approved in March 2021 and now introduce from the 1st December 2021, this was after debate ratified on January 24th January.
Our Managing Director Adam Reed has been heavily been involved for a number of zoom conferences with Southend Council working to ensure managing agents are able to assist their clients with these applications.
Adam has many years' experience in dealing with selective, additional, Mandatory and HMO licencing with a great number of local authorities throughout the UK.
This is designed to help the council regulate the conditions, management and occupation of the properties within certain areas of Southend on sea.
The scheme covers certain postcodes within 4 arears of Southend as follows
Milton wards
Kursaal ward
Victoria ward
Chalkwell ward
In these select areas, landlord will be required to have a license for each of their rental properties or risk getting a financial penalty.
Landlords will be able to apply for a license from Wednesday 1st December 2021 by completing an online form, you will be given a reference number that allows you to log in and track/review the progress of the license application.
The council are offering an ‘early bird' discount if you apply before 1st April 2022.
Who can make an application for the license?
You can apply for a license if you're the property owner, manager employed by the landlord, or the person in receipt of the rent
Proposed license holder
The license holder should have the power to:
• Let and terminate tenancies
• Access all parts of the premises (same as the owner)
• Authorise repairs and/or maintenance
If the property is managed by someone other than the license holder, such as a letting/managing agent, the license holder should make sure that the agent is fully aware and compliant with the license conditions, there are satisfactory management arrangements and a signed declaration in place. The agent is also required to be a member of a redress scheme. A copy of the contract between the owner of the property and the agent must be provided.
Non UK applications
If you apply for the license yourself and are a non UK resident, the property license will only be considered if Reed Residential sign a declaration agreeing to the conditions and obligations of the license conditions.
What is required to apply for a selective license?
Before applying for a license you will need the following information:
• Details of the license holder, including name, address and date of birth
• Room sizes in square metres
• Details about the property structure
• Location of the smoke & carbon monoxide alarms
• Name and address of all people and organisations with an interest in the property (freeholder, leaseholder, managing agent and mortgage provider)
• Safety certificates (gas, electrical etc)
• Floorplan with measurements
• Payment card details
A ‘fit and proper' check will be completed on the person applying for the license, this will include a declaration about any criminal offences and the following will also be taken into account
• Any offences involving fraud or other dishonesty, violence, drugs, or any offence listed in schedule 3 of the sexual offences Act 2003 as written here https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/schedule/3
• Any unlawful discrimination on grounds of sex, colour, race, ethnic or national origins, or disability
• Any contravention of the law relating to housing or landlord and tenant law
• Whether the person has a ‘banning order' in force under section 16 of the housing and planning act 2016 as written here https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/22/section/16#:~:text=Housing%20and%20Planning%20Act%202016%2C%20Section%2016%20is,in%20the%20content%20and%20are%20referenced%20with%20annotations.
• If any person involved in the management of the property has a sufficient level of competence to be involved.
Application Fee
The full license fee is £668, which is payable in 2 parts
Part one: £168
Part two: £500
The above charges will be applicable to any application received from 1st April 2022. Any applications received between 1st December 2021 to 31st March 2022, will be eligible for a 25% discount, bringing the license fee to £501, payable in two parts as follows
Part one: £168
Part two: £333
How long does the license last?
A license is for five years, from the date that it is issued. The council may issue a license for a shorter period, subject to additional conditions if there are any concerns about the management arrangements or standards.
Exemptions
Some tenancies and licenses are exempt and further information can be found under The selective licensing of houses (specified exemptions)(England)Order 2006 as written here https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/370/made
You can amend a license application via the Southend council website when the system goes live on the 1st December 2021.
If you are unsure if your property is exempt or requires a temporary exemption notice, you can contact the licensing team on selectivelicensing@southend.gov.uk
A postcode checker has been released by the council that will allow you to check if your property requires a license, if the property falls within the Blue highlighted area than you will need to apply for a license, please use this link to check https://southend.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a417422b8b0845b2b3918278386d3029
Please find a link below to the public notice that relates to the scheme, at the foot of the information is a list that contains roads that are covered under the scheme
https://www.southend.gov.uk/downloads/file/6966/public-notice-designation-of-an-area-for-selective-licensing
Having reviewed the information, I have noticed that in some areas the postcode checker contradicts the list of properties, so please be mindful of this when applying.
What We are doing at Reed
Our property managers are extremely experienced in the field dealing with a great number of HMO, mandatory, additional and selective license applications for clients throughout the UK and our Managing Director Adam Reed has been involved in providing consultancy advice to a number of landlords and agent groups on licensing.
The forms are very involved and can take between 2-3 hours to complete and cannot be submitted until you are able to submit the application in full.
You can instruct our property managers to complete the license on your behalf. We are charging a one off fee of £250.00 including vat, within this fee we shall apply for the license, complete all the required information, submit all safety certificates required and arrange to attend the properties to complete a scale floor plan with measurements and location of essential items and submit this to the council. We can apply the cost of the license to your rent account and make payment on your behalf on the required dates as the license fee needs to be paid in 2 instalments.
You are however able to complete this yourself and you will need to provide us with the reference number and log in information so we can monitor the progression of the license application as we will need to raise the dates on our system ready for the renewal.
It is going to be a very similar process to councils outside of Southend that we already manage for clients. We have been advised that properties that are to let in the licensed areas will be rigorously checked no matter where they are advertised and fines issues to those parties that do not adhere to the licensing scheme.
We will be applying for the licences for our clients unless you request otherwise, we will however need proof that a application has been made.
