New rules for HMOs and private landlords in Luton after council wins lengthy legal battle
A long-running legal case about licensing houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in the town has been won by Luton Borough Council, after it faced a challenge from local landlords.
The Supreme Court refused an application made on behalf of Luton Landlords and Letting Agents Limited (LLALA) saying it failed to “raise an arguable point of law”.
Plans to operate the local authority’s selective and additional licensing schemes will start on Monday (June 1), according to a council spokesman. The landlords argued that these two strategies were unlawful.
LBC’s plans to produce regulations on private landlords and HMOs were first publicised in August 2017. The council was forced to admit errors in its initial attempt to draft and enforce both schemes to regulate landlords of privately rented accommodation, who were consulted during the process.
But a notice of legal action was served on the council when a group of landlords and letting agents instructed a solicitor, which led to a lengthy legal process.
The High Court refused the landlords permission to apply for judicial review, before the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed their appeal. The landlords then sought permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, which rejected their claim earlier this month.
The Supreme Court judgment said: “The application doesn’t raise an arguable point of law.”
LBC operated an additional licensing scheme between 2013 and 2018, explained the Supreme Court’s cases portal: “It made a new additional licensing scheme and a selective licensing scheme designation in 2020.
“A company (of landlords) was incorporated on June 23rd 2020. It sent a pre-action letter about the lawfulness of the designations, which were withdrawn.
“LLALA brought judicial review proceedings challenging the LBC designations on October 25 2023. These two schemes came under the Housing Act 2004.
“One designated the whole of the borough as an area where HMOs had to be licensed. The other focused on part of the borough as an area where a house let under a single tenancy or licence, or under two tenancies or licenses for different accommodation in the house, had to be licensed.
“The fee to make an application for a licence was £122. If the application was granted, a further fee of £366 was payable to cover the costs of monitoring and enforcement.
“Anyone applying within the first three months would pay an early-bird fee of £150. This would cover the £122 cost of processing the application, but would leave £28 for enforcement.”
A council spokesman confirmed: “The selective and additional licensing will go live on Monday.”
The costs of establishing the schemes were estimated at between £30,000 and £50,000 in September 2022, but revenue would be raised through the fees.
An LBC executive committee meeting, last month, was told the licensing schemes were still “stuck in the courts”, by Labour Saints councillor and former portfolio holder for housing and neighbourhood services Ghulam Abbas.
He said: “It’s only HMOs with five or more households which have to be licensed currently.
“If that’s successful, the additional licensing scheme will be running across the whole town within three months. That would start to tackle some of the HMOs and issues around family homes particularly.”