Landlords of bedsits face safety crackdown

Scarborough Borough Council is overseeing the campaign to ensure the owners of houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) are licensed after the authority’s housing officers dealt with a wave of complaints about bedsit accommodation.

Scarborough district has an estimated 1,500 HMOs, most of which are privately rented and providing accommodation for the poorest sections of society who would otherwise not have access to the housing market.

Previous research and housing enforcement by the council revealed many such properties are poorly managed, often with inadequate fire safety measures.

Many HMOs have also fallen into a state of disrepair and are not properly insulated.

During the last financial year, the council’s private sector housing team investigated 293 complaints regarding the standard of HMOs – with most concerns relating to fire safety.

Scarborough Borough Council housing manager Andrew Rowe said: “It’s not acceptable for landlords to be running HMOs within the borough without the necessary permission to operate.

“The licence is essential to ensure that HMOs are properly managed and regulated and offer safe and decent accommodation.

“Unfortunately history shows that without this proper regulation in place HMOs, can be death traps if, for example, there is a fire, so we will take every action possible against all owners who ignore licensing.”

The council is now aiming to ensure that about 300 HMOs that fall under a mandatory licensing scheme under the Housing Act 2004 are up to standards by March 31 next year.

Any landlord found to be operating without the necessary licence faces a fine of as much as £20,000.