Coventry City Council is set to extend its work to protect tenants and communities across Coventry and ensure landlords meet the highest standards.
Councillors will meet to discuss continuing measures to make sure Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the city are kept in safe and good conditions to protect those living there and to reduce any impact on neighbourhoods.
They will consider extending an Additional Licensing Scheme in the city for a further five years so it will run until 2030.
The scheme gives the Council extra powers above the national scheme that all councils must follow for houses shared by five or more people from more than one household.
The additional scheme allows the Council to tackle the impact of poor-quality Houses in Multiple Occupation that may not fall into that category and gives it the power to work with landlords to further improve standards and challenge and ultimately enforce against those who fail to do so.
The additional scheme was first brought in in 2020 to run for five years, and now councillors will meet later this month to discuss the extension for a further five years.
The proposal follows a consultation earlier this year which showed that landlords and tenants were in favour of the tougher measures continuing.
The additional scheme will help the Council tackle issues such as bad management and anti-social behaviour, and make sure the houses are well-kept and do not affect local communities and neighbours.
Cllr David Welsh, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, said: “Local people I talk to have strong feelings about the impact and standard of HMOs in neighbourhoods throughout the city.
“That is why we have an additional licensing scheme, and we try to work with landlords to raise standards. This is about helping landlords, protecting tenants and taking action on behalf of communities.
“I want to stress that there are lots of good quality landlords running HMOs in Coventry and this scheme recognises those landlords as well as identifying those who need to make improvements.
“There has been a lot of good work over the past four years, but there is still more to do and extending the scheme will allow us to be more proactive and to challenge bad landlords and let them know they must improve standards or face enforcement action.
"It is estimated that Coventry has the 14th highest number of HMOs in England and Wales. A report published by the National Residential Landlords Association found that between 2021 and 2023 Coventry City Council was the top ranked authority for HMO related civil penalties (193) and third for issuing civil penalties in all private sector rented properties (207).
“We look forward to continuing our work to improve the city’s housing and ensuring rented properties are safe and happy homes for tenants and do not have a negative impact on neighbours and communities.”
A HMO is a property (or part of a property) shared by three or more people consisting of more than one household (e.g. not members of the same family). Tenants usually share at least one amenity, such as a kitchen, bathroom or toilet. It can also include shared flats within a larger building that have been poorly converted into HMOs.