Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council requiring a private landlord to pay the current higher fee for a selective licence for his premises. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council sent him a renewal letter for a selective licence for his rented property only there days before the licence fee increased from £500 to £555. He says the Council should reduce the charge for him to pay at the fee stated on the reminder letter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X is a private landlord and he says he received a reminder letter to obtain a licence for his rented property dated 28 March 2024. He says that when he came to pay the amount shortly afterwards he found the fee had increased to £555 from April 1. He says the council sent the reminder letter too late for him to pay at the previous lower amount and he should have this extra cost removed.
6. The Council told Mr X that the licensing scheme was operational from April 2022 and that he needed to have obtained a licence at this time. A discount period applied form February and landlords who paid before April were entitled to £60 discount per property for early adoption. Mr X did not apply early for a discount and the Council says he did not apply at all.
7. Landlords are legally required to have a licence in selective licensing areas and failure to comply risks prosecution and an unlimited fine or £30,000 civil penalty. The 28 March letter was a warning letter advising that enforcement action could start in 14 days if Mr X did not obtain a licence. The advice to pay £500 for a licence was not late because this amount was required to be paid from April 2022 and the scheme was well-publicised in local media at the time.
8. The onus was on Mr X as a commercial landlord to be aware of the legal requirements for renting property and he had over 2 years to obtain a licence at the original amount. The warning letter quoted the price of a licence at the time of issue, but by the time he paid, the new higher fee had been operational.
9. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
10. In this case Mr X had sufficient opportunity to obtain a licence at the original lower fee but failed to do so. There was no evidence of fault in the Council’s actions.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council requiring a private landlord to pay the current higher fee for a selective licence for his premises. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman