Yes! It can be taken as read that the above premise will cause, at best, raised eyebrows amongst (a great) many in the landlord and managing agent community but, bear with us.

Even before the invasion of Ukraine; even before the Covid pandemic - many people were aware that the housing market, taken as a whole, was dysfunctional (to be fair, there’s a strong case for saying that this is not restricted to England and Wales or to the UK as a whole but is a Global issue: see the 2019 housing documentary Push). Suffice to say that for the private rented sector certainly, rental reform in England has been a long time coming.

Since the recent release of the rental reform white paper landlords and private rental industry organisations have had the opportunity to examine the reform proposals and have expressed concerns over issues such as what will replace section 21 no fault possession notices. This concern is understandable as these notices were always more efficient and simple (than section 8 notices) for a landlord dealing with, for example, anti-social behaviour at their property. But, their very simplicity meant tenant insecurity, for all tenants, was inbuilt.

But another significant area that needed (and needs) reform was enforcement of standards. Not because we have a poor housing standards regime per se - but enforcement of those standards has been significantly weakened by more than a decade of austerity and cutbacks during a period when demand in the private rental market has risen, it sometimes seems exponentially, due to low levels of supply.

Today the private sector property press regularly report on disillusioned private landlords planning to sell their portfolios because of an increased tax and regulatory burden whilst rent levels and house prices apparently continue to rise. For those landlords wishing to stay in or who are looking to enter into the sector regulation doesn’t have to be a barrier. A percentage of existing and new landlords have, for example, decided on a work around avoiding the upcoming minimum energy efficiency standard conundrum by buying only properties that already meet or exceed that standard.

More generally, though many private landlords may as a matter of course take against selective licensing because they feel it is an unwarranted imposition, perhaps it could be better to look on licensing schemes as a boon rather than a barrier. Licensing conditions, set by Councils, provide a straightforward standards benchmark against which all relevant properties in a selective licence area can be judged. The trick is to not be found wanting and compliance with those conditions show to both the regulator and potential customers that both a property and its landlord are not, in fact, found wanting.

This of course means a degree of effort on the landlord’s part - proper tenancy documentation, valid property certification, acceptable management, including complaint procedures in place etc. It means regularly inspecting the property or having an agent inspect it on the landlord’s behalf. It means being able to actually show rather than assume that there are no serious hazards in the property. Many selective licence schemes where compliance inspection programmes have taken place show that the majority of licensed homes aren’t problem free but this doesn’t mean that the owners of those properties are automatically rogue landlords. It just means that the landlord will need to deal with damp and mould because the bathroom extractor isn’t working; to ensure smoke alarms or CO detectors are in good working order and compliant with current standards; or ensure the window latches are safety compliant; or ensure bannisters and landing guard rails are safe.

The licence conditions and property compliance inspections effectively tell a landlord what, if anything, needs doing to ensure a property is compliant with standards and so help that landlord protect the fabric of their investment and reduce the legal risk (legal costs and rent repayment orders for example) from potentially …. being found wanting.

One other thing to add - selective licensing scheme fees are usually discounted by a council in a number of circumstances as well as being tax deductible so - effectively - may be better looked on as part of the investment rather than a so-called “tax on landlords”.