Anti-social tenants are always a problem, particularly if you happen to live next door to them, and to combat the problem of anti social tenants in the private rental sector, Selective Housing laws have been introduced. These laws require that private landlords operating within certain designated areas, typically areas with poor housing and a higher than average level of social problems, must apply for a licence to rent out their properties.

Local authorities can apply to have parts of their boroughs designated as a Selective Licensing area in order to reduce the number of problem tenants and sub-standard houses. This means anyone owning a house in one of these areas must apply for a licence before renting it to a tenant to ensure that they are managing their properties in a responsible manner.

None of my properties fall within a Selective Licensing area, but if they did, I would be more than happy to comply with the laws and apply for the appropriate licences. However, one landlord in a Selective Licensing area of Middlesbrough apparently considered himself to be above the law, and despite being repeatedly warned that he needed to have a licence to let his properties, he failed to act. Consequently he was convicted in his absence and fined a hefty £1,600 plus costs.

The message here is clear. Landlords operating within Selective Licensing areas of the country cannot afford to ignore their legal and moral responsibilities: local authorities will not hesitate to enforce the Law when rogue landlords are in breach of it.

Landlords specialising in properties for students will now have the opportunity to gain special accreditation under a new national student landlord scheme set up by the Accommodation for Students (AFS) and Unipol.

The accreditation scheme will set a minimum benchmark of quality for student accommodation and will cover all student properties with a maximum of 14 occupants. It is designed to help students make a more informed choice about the accommodation they are looking at, plus it should help to remove the sub-standard properties sometimes offered to students.

Student landlords who apply for accreditation must pass a short online training course, after which their properties will be verified by a trained inspector and a report issued. Once any action points have been addressed, an accreditation certificate will be issued to successful landlords, who will then be allowed to show a “thumbs up” logo against their properties on the Accommodation for Students website.

How will the scheme help student landlords?

Any landlord who takes pride in their properties and the services they are offering will welcome the new accreditation scheme with open arms. The scheme will allow landlords to apply for accreditation based on the quality of their accommodation, which will make their properties stand out to potential student tenants. Other practical benefits offered by the accreditation scheme include template tenancy agreements and discounts.

Personally I think this scheme is a great idea. I can still recall the awful student accommodation I was forced to live in during my university days many moons ago, so anything that removes bad landlords from the accommodation process is a good thing for the rest of us.

Councillors in Wrexham have voted in favour of a tough scheme to introduce brand new licensing laws for landlords in the town. Under the strict new licensing laws, any landlord who owns shared houses, bedsits, and properties converted into multiple occupancy dwellings must apply for a five-year license costing £700. Once a license has been applied for, inspectors will come and view the property before granting the license to the landlord.

The legislation has been introduced to try and reduce the level of sub-standard housing in the area and councillors hope that the licensing laws will dissuade slum landlords from continuing to operate property rental businesses without bothering to spend their profits providing decent bathrooms, kitchens and fire escapes.

Since I don’t fall into the category of “slum landlord”, I can see the sense behind the legislation, but as has already been pointed out by critics of the scheme, there is a danger that introducing the rather steep £700 license charge will deter new landlords from entering the property rental business, or worse, encourage existing landlords to put up their property rents in a bid to off-set their increased costs.

However, there is no doubt in my mind that there needs to be some kind of legislation in place to discourage rogue landlords from cashing in on the increasing demand for rental properties, and it would appear that Wrexham landlords agree with me since they and the public were consulted before the legislation was passed and the majority were in favour of the move.