Southend andlords permit scheme in doubt (From Southend Standard)
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Southend andlords permit scheme in doubt
5:00am Saturday 16th June 2012 in Echo News
CONTROVERSIAL plans to introduce permits for Southend’s landlords are set to be scrapped.
After 18 months of bitter debate, bosses at Southend Council are expected to sound the death knell for the controversial selective licensing scheme when they meet next week.
The idea, which would have required property owners to pay up to £600 per home before they could rent it out, has divided residents and landlords.
When it was first proposed in January 2011, the scheme, designed to ensure both accommodation and tenants met a minimum standard, was widely backed by councillors and residents who were fed up with antisocial behaviour in their streets.
But, with threats of legal challenges ringing in their ears, council chiefs have now recommended the project is shelved for at least a year.
In its place, landlords have suggested a compromise system which would require them to regulate themselves under the banner of a new organisation – the South East Alliance of Landlords, Agents and Residents.
Tony Prior, the chairman of the alliance, said: “We have put forward a proposal which we hope the council will accept.
“It will allow us to deal with the issues which selective licensing was supposed to tackle, but in a less confrontational way.
“We want to work with the council, not against it.”
At the moment, only shared houses with three or more storeys, two or more separate households of at least five people, have to be licensed. Landlords who had certain criminal convictions, previous poor management records or had ignored council demands to maintain their homes could have been rejected, leaving them unable to let to tenants.
Jacqui Lansley, the council’s head of community strategy and development, said: “The proposal will improve relationships between the council and landlords, while minimising risk to the council and achieving the bulk of the objectives of licensing.”
Comments(13)
freecomment
says...
11:29am Fri 15 Jun 12
The state of many rental properties in the Southend district is an absolute disgrace as are some of the tenants it has to be said. Southend Council acting like a bunch of wimps again! They had the chance to clean things up, regulate the industry locally, but don't want to rock the boat. I wonder why?
LisaWOS
says...
1:16pm Fri 15 Jun 12
notinwestcliffanymore
says...
3:17pm Fri 15 Jun 12
jolllyboy
says...
4:59pm Fri 15 Jun 12
Ivanna Goodhump
says...
6:53pm Fri 15 Jun 12
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The Council currently has plenty of exisiting powers to deal with shoddy or poor landlords but they choose (for some inexplicable reason) not to use them or do anything about it/them. One only has to look at the longstanding issues with the towerblocks and drug dealing/antisocial tenants in Southend to show how little the Council really cares - and these are the Councils own tenants.
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What should happen is that if a landlord attracts continual complaints that are upheld after thorough investigation then they should be blacklisted and no future tenant claiming benefit should be able to claim housing benefit for that address until matters are resolved.
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The balance should also be that Landlords can report bad tenants (and there are many) who in turn should then be ineligible to claim housing benefit to rent any property should the complaint be upheld.
v.randy
says...
9:44pm Fri 15 Jun 12
We have made it too easy and profitable for the above to just carve up the housing market.Neither of the above care about our community or care about maintenance ...houses are just cash cows
The Cater Wood Creeper
says...
11:40am Sat 16 Jun 12
Southend andlords
what's an 'andlord'? is it a cross between Jeffrey Archer and Marvin the paranoid android?
jayman
says...
5:25pm Sat 16 Jun 12
half the properties around Southend are rotting away and the poor tenants are needlessly living in damp, mouldy and sometimes dangerous conditions while the landlords get there nest egg paid for, mostly due to (working) housing benefit (top up) tenants who could never afford the rents on basic minimum wage..
if the government paid mortgage top ups at the same rate to people on low incomes 'instead of to the benefit of greedy and unscrupulous landlords' then people would have more pride in there streets and communities as they would own a stake in there own street.
if you work hard for a living on low pay why shouldn't you have a chance of buying a place with the same fiducial support you would receive if you rented one of southends many dumps..
jayman
says...
5:29pm Sat 16 Jun 12
jayman wrote:sorry. typo. 'fiducial' should have been 'financial'
its okay SBC.
half the properties around Southend are rotting away and the poor tenants are needlessly living in damp, mouldy and sometimes dangerous conditions while the landlords get there nest egg paid for, mostly due to (working) housing benefit (top up) tenants who could never afford the rents on basic minimum wage..
if the government paid mortgage top ups at the same rate to people on low incomes 'instead of to the benefit of greedy and unscrupulous landlords' then people would have more pride in there streets and communities as they would own a stake in there own street.
if you work hard for a living on low pay why shouldn't you have a chance of buying a place with the same fiducial support you would receive if you rented one of southends many dumps..
Lefty Cyclist Type
says...
5:33pm Sat 16 Jun 12
We've all seen how well self-regulation works with the press, MPs' expenses, police complaints etc. Allowing Southend's slumlords to self-regulate is a preposterous idea.
bignosechaff
says...
7:54am Sun 17 Jun 12
bigboy57
says...
4:55pm Mon 18 Jun 12
westcliffboy says...
11:03am Fri 15 Jun 12
The private landlords ran an intense lobbying campaign, and of course some of our Councillors are also private landlords....
The private landlords run Southend's housing policy - not the Council. Just take a look at the many rented units in westcliff, either side of London Road. Most of them are private, most of them are rundown, and once you get inside, you can see years of neglect, below standard space, rubbish sotorage areas, etc etc.
Yet the Council, if it was serious, could deal with a lot of these issues with the powers it already has - yet chooses to turn a blind eye.
Southend should be renamed Shameful.