On legionnaires I did it myself, partly because the person who did the gas safe check, said he could do one, but given it was a two bed flat, with a combi boiler and no tank or aircon, he would not know what to test. I did, presumably after studying the guidance, say something about cleaning the shower head should the flat be empty for three weeks or longer. It was accepted by the agency, but my experience is that Agencies have largely given up on asking for them.
Maybe we should have a landlord thread where people can flame us, and we can carry on trying to house people responsibly.
I have done some digging into the Small HMO thing and individual Council's additional requirements. I heard about the Greenwich one late last year but was too busy with other stuff to do anything but park it.
It is going to be a major task.
The very simple learning is that should you be thinking of letting to sharers, you should check your Councils HMO requirements very carefully. The Greenwich additional requirements are quite hidden away.
The next learning is that if you fall under what are termed Small HMO provisions, simply don't let to sharers. The work and cost of even getting to first base, ie when the Council come in and potentially demand all sorts of works, is huge.
This will surely push potential sharers, and Greenwich with its University and good transport links, has strong demand from young professionals and students, out of the better quality housing into the
hands of those who are likely to ignore regulation. In short the borough loses good quality accommodation whilst doing nothing much about the bad,.
The biggest problem is planning. I have sharers in a very bog-standard Victoria terrace house in a nice residential street. I let either to prof sharers or to families. I dont want to evict my lovely tenants so will have to seek a certificate of lawfulness for change of use from C3 (residential) to C4, the latter being Small HMO. This change falls within permitted development in Greenwich, but only up to September 18. After that I will need full planning but still have to pay £231 and it will take about 6 weeks. If I relet to a family or want to sell I probably need to do get permission to change the use back. Then I need to repeat should I let to sharers again.
The costs continue to add up. I need to have a DBS. I need to produce a floor plan. The cost of licensing will be £1508 though there is a discount if I join a landlord organisation. The licence will be for a period of 1-5 years - the Council get to decide. The standards required go well beyond Gas Safe and electrical and cover a range of issues such as kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities, fire precautions, heating, lighting, ventilation and room sizes. Again Councils can demand standards beyond Government ones. Again there will be costs of checks, with the potential for more costs should anything be found wanting.
All good on one level, in that tenants should be safe. But everyone should be safe, and given I have alarms, gas checks, fire doors etc already, I can't see that my tenants are any less safe than owner-occupiers in the same street.
The fines are horrendous. £30,000 plus up to a year's rent. Not surprisingly some Councils (yeah mine) are gaining a reputation of being very hot on implementation.
My agent is offering to help with the forms, but at a price. The Councils HMO phone helpline was less than useless, as if they have no obligation at all to help Landlords through this, and seemed completely unaware of the planning issue, and though the planning guy tried to be helpful he only told me about the current situation, and did not alert me to changes that will be implemented in September, even though I was subsequently able to find the information on the Council's own website (not linked to their HMO licensing information as far as I could tell.)
Bizarrely Foxtons, who I rent other properties through, were really helpful. They have just had to set up a dedicated section to help landlords and don't charge extra. Apparently if the Agent manages or rent collects they also fall within these new provisions, and each Authority has a different approach. I assume in time insurers will want to see licensing documents.
There is also this website:
www.londonpropertylicensing.co.uk/
Sorry about the rant. I would welcome recommendations for a good landlord association to join, so I can get my Licensing discount.
I hope this serves as a warning that BTL is not a business to go into without experience. Plus for those who are already there, there is a need to think very carefully about letting to sharers. It may not be worth the effort.
Grenfell was awful. However Councils are exempt from many of the regulations private landlords face, including it seems, fire/smoke alarms, room sizes and over-occupation. Unlike private landlords Councils make very little effort to check who actually lives in the flats they rent out, and whether they have a right to rent. Ditto unlike private building managers, they don't seem to enforce any permission to let provisions.
More bizarrely, you don't need to be licensed to let to, say weekend stag/hen parties, via Air BnB.
Regulations should target risks.