Agenda item
ADDITIONAL LICENSING FOR HOUSES IN MULTIPLE OCCUPATION (HMO)
To consider a report by Councillor Tony Thomas, Lead Member for Housing and Communities (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet approval on re-designating an Additional Licensing Scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation within Rhyl and extending the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen.
Decision:
Vote taken: 7 in favour, 0 against, 0 abstentions
RESOLVED that Cabinet approve the re-designation of the Additional Licensing Scheme in Rhyl and extend the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen.
Minutes:
Councillor
Tony Thomas presented the report seeking Cabinet approval on re-designating an
Additional Licensing Scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in Rhyl and
extending the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and
Llangollen.
Some
background was provided regarding the legislative provisions laid down by the
Housing Act 2004 and the duties placed on local authorities to operate a
mandatory licensing scheme for certain types of HMOs to ensure proper
management and provision of suitable facilities and fire safety
arrangements. The Act also enabled local
authorities to extend a licensing scheme to other categories of HMO to address
particular problems and required that designation be reviewed every 5
years. An additional licensing scheme
for HMOs in Rhyl had been operating since 2010 (reviewed and extended by
Cabinet in December 2014) and Cabinet approval was now sought to re-designate
the Rhyl scheme and also to extend the designation to relevant properties in Prestatyn, Denbigh and Llangollen. A number of elements for consideration had
been detailed within the report including the criteria to be applied;
justification and evidence for the additional licensing scheme; conditions to
be imposed and the outcome of the formal consultation process on the proposals.
Officers
responded to questions raised arising from the report as follows –
·
elaborated
upon the reasoning behind the recommendations given the success of the scheme
in Rhyl. Based on the evidence provided
it was considered that Prestatyn, Denbigh and
Llangollen would also benefit from the scheme given that those areas had the
highest density of HMOs after Rhyl and had generated a greater number of
service complaints and anti-social behaviour incidents
·
in terms of the capacity to administer and
enforce the scheme it was considered existing staff resources should be
sufficient to cover the additional areas but it would be dependent on the total
number and condition of HMOs eligible for the scheme – if more resources were
required than anticipated then the additional fees generated by the scheme were
expected cover the additional cost
·
advised that some local authorities had
introduced a county wide policy but it was not considered suitable for
Denbighshire given the lack of sufficient evidence to justify that approach and
the sufficiency of resources to administer it
·
acknowledged that St. Asaph had the next
highest number of HMO stock but given the limited staff resources and available
evidence to justify additional licensing it had been decided not to include St.
Asaph in the scheme
·
it was thought opportune to consider
extending the designation to other areas alongside the required five yearly
review of the designation in Rhyl
·
reference was made to the tragic fire in Prestatyn in 2012 which may have been prevented had an
additional licensing scheme been in place; whilst there had not been sufficient
evidence at that time to justify additional licensing, more detailed statistics
and supportive evidence was now available to make that case
·
elaborated upon the storage and disposal of
refuse in terms of meeting the minimum licensing standards for HMOs together
with both the tenants and landlords responsibilities in that regard –
assurances were provided that support was available for vulnerable tenants in
terms of meeting their obligations
·
in relation to ensuring compliance with the
scheme assurances were given regarding the good working relationship with
management and letting agencies and their positive engagement with the process
and response to requests
·
explained
the process for identifying eligible HMOs for additional licensing from various
sources including RentSmart but acknowledged the
difficulties in bringing rogue landlords into the scheme which was reliant on
other intelligence.
Cabinet
welcomed the report and considered that the current scheme in Rhyl had worked
well and agreed that Prestatyn, Denbigh and
Llangollen could also benefit from additional licensing based on the evidence
provided.
RESOLVED that Cabinet
approve the re-designation of the Additional Licensing Scheme in Rhyl and
extend the designation to Prestatyn, Denbigh and
Llangollen.
Supporting documents:
- ADD LICENSING HMO REPORT, item 5. PDF 239 KB
- HMOs APP 1 - Proposal Document, item 5. PDF 1 MB
- HMOs APP 2 - Licence Conditions 2020, item 5. PDF 362 KB
- HMOs APP 3 - North Wales Fire Service Supporting Document, item 5. PDF 110 KB
- HMOs APP 4 - North Wales Police Supporting Document, item 5. PDF 207 KB
- HMOs APP 5 - Waste Enforcement Supporting Document, item 5. PDF 489 KB
- HMOs APP 6 - HMO Licensing Fees Final (Full), item 5. PDF 560 KB
- HMOs APP 7 - Wellbeing Impact Assessment, item 5. PDF 137 KB
- HMOs APP 8 - Consultation Responses, item 5. PDF 497 KB