Lincolnshire landlords not loving licensing

The four are the first landlords to be fined for failing to comply with West Lindsey District Council’s selective licensing regulations, which were introduced in July 2016. They appeared at Lincoln Magistrates court where they were punished for not managing their properties in accordance with licensing specifications.

The most significant fine –£108,000 – was handed to Jagdish Singh of Leicester, who pled guilty for failure to licenses eight of his properties, as well as three offences relating to not complying with improvement notices. The fine is the largest issued to one landlord in the UK for letting a property without a selective licence.

The other three defendants, Gurjit Singh, Balbir Kaur and Harpal Bindra Singh jointly own a number of the unlicensed properties with Jagdish Singh, and already held a number of ‘failure to licence offences’ between them.

The licensing regulations were introduced in 2016 in order to help tackle anti-social behaviour issues within areas of Lincolnshire, and improve property management standards by requiring landlords to comply with more stringent regulations.
Additional licensing requirements can be confusing. With more and more councils across the country exploring licensing schemes, this is becoming a concern to many landlords.

Join the NLA's Local Authority Policy Officer, Gavin Dick and Urban.co.uk's Adam Male as they shed light on this tricky subject in our free licensing webinar on Thursday, November 14th at 7pm. Whether you have an HMO, own a property that is located within an area with additional licensing regulations, or are concerned about how licensing could impact you in the future, this comprehensive overview shouldn't be missed. Register for free here.