Rental licensing scheme extended

ASCHEME which requires landlords of rented homes in Bristol to be licensed has been extended to three new and large areas of the city.

People living in rented properties in the Horfield, Bedminster and Brislington West wards of the city now have extra protection, council housing chiefs have said, because their landlords will have to get licences and be subject to regular checks.

It’s the first big expansion of the landlord licensing scheme since 12 more wards in the city centre were added to the initial scheme before the pandemic.

In Horfield, almost a third of all homes are privately rented. Landlords in Horfield who rent out houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) will have to get a licence from the council to continue to do so. HMOs are classified as a house or a flat that is occupied by three or more unrelated people who live together and share facilities including kitchens or bathrooms – so that covers everything from a standard 3-bed house-share to bigger HMOs with multiple bedsits where people have shared facilities too.

And in Bedminster and Brislington West, the landlord licensing scheme goes further, and includes all private rented properties – not just HMOs – that are occupied by one or two tenants, or a family, but doesn’t include homes where a landlord or landlady lives there and rents out fewer than three rooms to lodgers.

The city council has worked out that in Brislington West and Bedminster, the new licensing schemes will cover 2,222 rented homes that aren’t HMOs, and in all three areas, the total number of HMOs that now require the landlord to be licensed is 686, to add to the 479 HMOs that already have to be licensed.

Bristol’s housing chief Tom Renhard said the licensing scheme was about improving the conditions of rented homes and flats in the city.

“He said: “We would encourage all landlords to apply for the relevant licenses and to work with us to help protect vulnerable tenants and make people across the city more comfortable in their homes.”