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Council Notes:
 

The Royal Borough of
Greenwich operates a Mandatory Licensing Scheme for all Houses in
Multiple Occupation (HMO). This means that a landlord must meet the
required threshold for maintaining good standards in the management
of that property or face fines of up to
£30,000.  

 

That under the
borough-wide Additional Licensing Scheme brought into force by the
Council in 2024, the Royal Borough of Greenwich has increased
regulatory commitments beyond the minimum legal requirements
(HMO’S that have 5 or more residents must be licensed) to
implement robust safeguards that regulate smaller HMOs, where at
least 3 residents forming more than one household live must also be
licenced and meet the same standards as mandated by law for larger
HMOs. That the introduction of the Additional Licensing Scheme is a
positive step forward and a helpful measure that has enabled
greater local control over the quality and use of HMOs in the
Borough and is helping to drive up quality of landlords who operate
in the borough.   

 

That under Article 4,
all applications to convert a family home into an HMO must apply
for planning approval.  

 

That a total of
£1,083,500 worth of fines have been issued to HMO landlords
that have not licensed their properties. We have recently launched
a large-scale project to gather intelligence around potential
unlicenced properties and to increase compliance with property
licensing requirements.  
 

That the Council has
rolled out a Selective Licencing Scheme in five wards in the
borough, which require single household properties that are
privately rented to also be licenced. That it is the ambition of
the Council to expand this scheme further across the borough to
ensure that tenants are properly protected from
exploitation.  

 
Council Believes:
 
·       
That the Royal Borough of Greenwich will continue to
clamp down on rogue ‘cowboy’ landlords who don’t
play by the rules and ensure a fair deal for private renters and
responsible high-quality landlords. To achieve this aim, the
Council will build upon and expand its robust Private Sector
Licensing Scheme to drive up the standards and the
professionalisation of landlording within the borough, and ensure
safe, quality accommodation is available across this housing
sector.  
 
·       
Private rented property licences help improve
property conditions, raise management standards, protect
tenants’ rights, tackle anti-social behaviour, and ensure
that high quality, responsible landlords who play by the rules are
the norm, not the exception.  
 
Council Resolves to:
 

Ensure that the
emerging new Local plan will include a policy specific to HMOs and
that this will seek to manage the loss of family housing,
preventing 3 bed family homes to conversions for
HMO. 

High concentrations
of HMOs result in less cohesive communities and lead to a high
turnover of residents and can cause environmental problems due to
the temporary nature of the accommodation. Introduce new policy in
the emerging Local Plan to deal with areas that are considered to
exhibit over concentrations of HMOs, with a focus on wards which
are considered to have an over concentration.? 

 
Licencing
Framework  

This Council will
establish legal clarity on the possible extent of Member’s
involvement, resident engagement, written submissions of support or
objection, or ‘call in’ in the determinations of HMO
licences within the legislative framework set out by the Housing
Act 2004. As well as establishing the legal criteria for such
provision to avoid the council being taken to court by
applicants.  
Hold a public facing
campaign across the borough to increase awareness, both for
landlords and tenants, of the Mandatory, Additional, and Selective
Licensing Schemes. This will enable tenants and neighbouring
residents, who may be negatively affected by the way an HMO is
being operated, to use the licensing mechanism as a means of
redress and holding landlords accountable.  
 

·        
Invest in new and emerging technologies that will
allow the Council to expand the capacity and enforcement capability
of its HMO Compliance Team. This will help ensure that all
landlords who are required to be licenced are brought within the
schemes and increase the number of enforcement actions taken
against rogue landlords who fail to comply or keep their property
in an unsuitable condition. This increased capacity will help allow
the enforcement team to not only pursue and clamp down on rogue
landlords who do not meet expected standards but also allow free up
capacity to allow the Council to be more responsive to resident and
tenant complaints.