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Licensing

What is this?

The Housing Act 2004 introduced a range of licensing regimes. 

Licensing of certain types of HMOs with more than five tenants over three floors has been introduced on a mandatory basis and many local authorities are considering additional and selective licensing systems for other types of property or specific areas within their locality. This has the potential to impose a significant additional burden on residential landlords across England and Wales.

The NLA's position

The NLA believes that some local authorities are levying fees for mandatory HMO licensing which are too high.  Some are demanding amenity standards that are too stringent and allowing insufficient time for compliance.

The NLA will press local authorities to set fair, reasonable licensing fees and apply regulations on amenity standards with a light rein.  The NLA will monitor the introduction of additional and selective licensing.  It will seek to feed into any mechanism which any government agency establishes to monitor licence fees and amenity standards.

What we're doing

• Working with local authorities to help shape their local housing strategies.
• Lobbying Central Government, calling for greater consistency on licensing fees and conditions.
• Providing a unified voice for landlords in discussions with local authorities about licensing issues.

What's your view?
• Complete our online survey, and let us know what you think.

Read the NLA Bulletin for the latest news:
• Bulletin no.2 : April 2008 [ 250kb PDF file]
• Bulletin no.1 : December 2007 [ 195kb PDF file]