Licensing private rented property in Slough

If additional and selective licensing schemes are introduced, landlords of privately rented property in the Borough would be required to obtain a licence from the Council.

The additional licensing designation would extend licensing requirements to smaller Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) that do not meet the mandatory threshold. This would include properties occupied by three or four people forming two or more households, and who share some basic facilities or amenities such as kitchen or bathroom.

Additional licensing would also require what are known as Section 257 HMOs to be licensed. These are converted buildings of self-contained flats where the conversion did not comply with the appropriate building standards in place at the time and still do not.

The selective licensing designation would require all properties that are rented to private tenants (e.g. a family, single occupant or two sharers) to be licensed. It would not cover properties that are already licensed as HMOs.

The Council objectives for the proposed licensing schemes are:

• To improve housing conditions in the Borough’s private rented sector by proactively identifying and remediating poor housing conditions.

• To improve property management standards and reduce risks related to overcrowding by ensuring that licence conditions are complied with and licence holders are “fit and proper”.

• To protect vulnerable tenants by ensuring landlords and agents manage properties professionally

• To increase tenant awareness of the minimum standards they can expect in rented accommodation and what their other tenancy rights are.

• To reduce antisocial behaviour arising from private rented accommodation by compelling licence holders to investigate complaints and take appropriate action in line with the licence conditions.