Landlord licencing makes private rented homes ‘safer’ on busy Sheffield roads

Sheffield City Council’s Housing Policy Committee today (January 26) has heard that a designation for the selective licensing of properties on areas of London Road, Abbeydale Road and Chesterfield Road in Sheffield ended after five years in November 2023.

Selective Licensing is a discretionary power that imposes a legal requirement for all residential landlords in a designated area to apply for a licence for each residential property that they rent out in that area.

Before a Selective Licensing designation can be made the Government state that any scheme must satisfy one or more of the following conditions:

– Low housing demand (or is likely to become such an area)– A significant and persistent problem caused by anti-social behaviour– Poor property conditions– High levels of migration– High level of deprivation– High levels of crime

In the London Road, Abbeydale Road and Chesterfield Road areas the most common issue, the report added, was “a significant number of them had poor conditions”.

Applicants were required to provide (where applicable) copies of the property’s Gas Safety Record, Grade A fire alarm system certificate, emergency lighting certificate and a floor plan.

Also, all selective licence holders and managers must pass a Fit and Proper Person test. This means that they must be free from criminal convictions and be able to prove that they have satisfactory property management arrangements in place.

As part of the Fit and Proper Test, proposed licence holders and managers must confirm that they do not have unspent convictions relating to offences involving fraud or other dishonesty, or violence, drugs etc.

One management company was deemed to be not Fit and Proper.

All licenced properties in the said area had been assessed to ensure that they meet the licence conditions and 99 per cent of licenced properties had been inspected on at least one occasion.

Also, the scheme identified a number of hazards in the examined properties.

The top 5 hazards were• Fire Safety (142 hazards)• Falls on Stairs (103)• Falls Between Levels (54)• Damp and Mould (43)• Excess Cold (25).

As a result of the inspections, a total of 207 Informal notices and 190 formal notices were served on licence holders and managers and a total of 65 Civil Penalties have been issued to 33 different individuals and five management agencies – fines totalling £179,200 have been issued.

The report said: “By considering the maximum occupancy of the properties where hazards were identified it is possible to estimate that up to 800 people have been made safer following the removal of serious safety hazards from their homes.”

As a summary of their findings, the authors said: “As a result of works carried out in the designated area, private rented properties have been made safer, compliance with licence conditions achieved and landlords have been supported to provide better-managed tenancies.”

The council has a statutory duty to regulate the private sector. There are over 45,000 private rented properties in Sheffield.