The landlord, who failed to renew his HMO additional licence, has been told to repay rent of £1,080 to each of 3 tenants instead of the possible total of £5,400 each under a rent repayment order (RRO).

At the First Tier residential property Tribunal the landlord admitted that he had not renewed his licence and that he had thus committed an offence under section 72(1) of the Housing Act 2004. He also accepted that the 3 tenants had paid their rent of £450 per month each during the relevant period when the property was without a licence. Although at the hearing the tenants also raised the issue of disrepair, the Tribunal discounted this as "no prior notification [of disrepair] had been given to the Tribunal or the respondent [landlord]".

A factor in the case was that the landlord had renewed his licence as soon as he was alerted that it needed to be renewed and the local authority had taken no further action against him and had renewed the licence promptly and "without any additional conditions being attached". The landlord's representative stated that it was a case where the RRO should be 0% of the maximum but if not that then between 15% and 20% and one of the tenants accepted that a minimal RRO would be appropriate though the property had been unlicensed for a period of 12 months.

It was further pointed out by the landlord's representative that the original licence had expired during the start of the Covid 19 pandemic which the Tribunal accepted "had significantly affected us all".

In coming to its decision the Tribunal said that operating an unlicensed but licensable property was a serious offence "but it is not the most serious of offences for which a rent repayment order may be made. We do, however, acknowledge that the need for proper enforcement is a matter we should take account of". The Tribunal went on to say that "there are no aggravating factors in respect of the offence" and there was both no suggestion that the landlord had any prior convictions and no suggestion that the tenants' conduct could be questioned.

The Tribunal concluded that "Taking all matters into account we find that a rent Repayment Order should be made in the sum of 20% of the total rent paid".

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