Rhyl landlords could be forced to clean up their acts

Oct 15 2008 By David Rutland

Rhyl housing

LANDLORDS in Rhyl may be forced to upgrade thousands of unlicensed properties when the council takes up new powers to impose standards.

Three years ago, the Government introduced laws designed to eradicate poorly managed premises run by landlords who, according to Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane, are "making money out of misery".

It was envisaged that landlords of hundreds of properties in run-down areas of Rhyl would be forced to register and either improve their properties or quit the town.

But in July, the Visitor learned that there are 30 properly licensed Houses of Multiple Occupation in the town as only properties of three floors or more with more than one family and with five or more people sharing facilities need a licence.

And tomorrow, Denbighshire will start taking steps to regulate the remainder.

Head of Planning and Public Protection, Graham Boase, said: "The vast majority of those HMO properties initially thought as likely to fall within mandatory licensing actually fall outside the criteria laid down by the Government because at some time or other they have become converted into self-contained flats. They do not have shared facilities and do not as a consequence fall within the mandatory licensing criteria."

Mr Boase proposes that the authority implement additional licensing, which would apply regulations to buildings of three stories or higher, housing three or more people in self-contained flats.

Officers estimate there are at least 400 such properties in Rhyl and many more individual flats.

Vale of Clwyd MP Chris Ruane said "They could have done this four years ago. The licensing act enables local authorities to draw a line around any troublesome building, down to the level of a bungalow.

"They haven’t done it before because they haven’t see it as a sufficiently high priority."

Tomorrow’s meeting is to get the views of councillors before a full consultation is launched.