Are your HMO landlords licensed?

Many landlords operating Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) properties are doing so without the correct licence in place, risking heavy fines, as well as potentially putting their tenants’ safety at risk, warns Rentguard Insurance. When a landlord recently received a huge fine for various breaches, including £3,000 in relation to violations of HMO regulations such as fire safety and being unlicensed, it added to a spate of cases highlighting the fact that many landlords are operating HMO properties without the correct licence in place. In another case, a Hounslow landlord who let out an overcrowded and rat-infested unlicensed HMO was recently ordered in court to pay nearly £40,000 in fines and legal costs. A total of 16 people were found crammed into the house and outbuildings, they included a family with a six-month-old baby living in a garden shed. Elsewhere, two west London landlords were ordered to pay a total of more than £50,000 for failing to register their property as an HMO and for breaching fire safety regulations after a fatal fire at their property in July last year. The landlords were prosecuted by Hounslow Council, which said that had the property been licensed as an HMO it would…