Decision details

Councillor Hoy presented a revised Housing Enforcement Policy.

Councillor Hoy stated that the Policy was originally approved in 2018 and it sets out for openness and transparency to tenants, agents and landlords the range of powers available to the Council contained in legislation that are used on a daily basis. She stated the emphasis being that the Council should not punish good landlords, the policy has worked well and stood up to scrutiny at every residential property tribunal the Council has attended to defend fines but there has been some learning in court cases that has led to a legal review of the policy to give greater clarity to all involved in the process.  She summarised what the revised policy sets out and that Overview and Scrutiny Panel and stakeholders have been consulted.

Members made comments, asked questions and received responses as follows:

·         Councillor Tierney stated that it is interesting how different councils around the country handle these policies and issues. In his view, Fenland has taken a balanced approach in that there are things that could have happened which would have been punitive to landlords and would have harmed people’s ability to get housing, which the Council pushed back against, and there are other policies that are being championed which punish bad landlords without creating a situation where people do not want to be landlords. He thinks that the way the Council has approached these matters is one that is respected by both landlords and tenants, people can see that the Council has improved the places that are for rent whilst recognising there is still more to be undertaken and Councillor Hoy has led this well.

·         Councillor Hoy expressed her thanks to the officers as when she started her role in 2019, she was keen to implement a policy such as this one that fined the bad landlords and the team embraced this and are undertaking the work daily.

·         Councillor Mrs French stated that she welcomes this policy and referred to a property on The Chase March which has been vandalised and has cost the Council a fortune in boarding it up; the property owes Fenland a lot of money and some form of legal needs to be taken against the owners to try to bring this property back into use and retrieve the Council’s money. Councillor Hoy responded that mostly the Housing Enforcement Policy relates to issues under the Housing Habitation Act but counteracting that is the planning side and perhaps the Council should be serving more Section 215 notices as there are a number of properties around the district that have been empty for too long. Councillor Mrs French stated that it would be a 216 Notice and she is pleased that these were approved to be served on two properties at the last Planning Committee meeting; she feels that Fenland should be taking a tough line as the district has too many properties that have been allowed to fall into disrepair. Councillor Mrs Laws stated that she does not disagree with what has been said, but there is also a balance due to costs to the Council and the individual and if members have any properties they would like to highlight in particular then officers will look at them. She stated a further issue is that due to Covid the courts are behind, and these cases are not top of its list.

·         Councillor Tierney expressed his sympathy with Councillor Mrs Laws as you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t to some extent and she is right about needing a balance as this Council considers itself to be compassionate, but on the same scale if you wait too long and are too sympathetic it can be a problem that never goes away and you end up with a situation that can cripple an area.  His opinion is that the Council is slightly too far on the compassionate side, and he thinks the Council should be just a little tougher but not unreasonably so.

·         Councillor Boden concurred that the Council does need to be somewhat tougher but referred to a burnt-out property within his ward where compassion was certainly required but made the point there is a difference between compassion and being taken advantage of.

·         Councillor Mrs Laws, referring to the case that Councillor Boden mentioned, made the point that the Council does try to be compassionate and there is a process, and it takes time to find contractors but reiterated that if any member has a particular property where they feel action needs to be taken to let her know.

Proposed by Councillor Hoy, seconded by Councillor Tierney and AGREED to adopt the Council Housing Enforcement Policy.

(Councillor Benney declared that he is a private landlord and the policy may impact him, and left the meeting for the duration of the discussion and voting thereon)