Croydon Intervention to Improve Private Tenants Conditions

Croydon Council appears to be undertaking quite a lot of work to ensure that private tenants living conditions meet expected standards. However it does not know the nature of multiple ownership by private landlords nor by networks of interconnected companies and individuals. I had raised these and other issues about the Council’s action and its knowledge of the nature of private landlordism in a supplementary note for the Scrutiny  Sub-committee meeting on 18 June, followed up in a Freedom of Information Act request.

Health & Safety Inspections

Question: How many assessments have Croydon officials carried out into private rented dwellings under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) each year since it came into force by category of action:

a.  Sections 3 and 4

b.  Fuel poverty or energy efficiency strategy

c.  Neighbourhood renewal assessment

d.  Multi-occupied buildings

e.  Requests for financial assistance by owner or tenants

The reply:

1. A and D – number of HHSRS assessments.

Note (1) – the number of assessments carried out under Section 4 is approximate and is based on the number of requests for service in each year.  The majority of these will result in a HHSRS assessment being carried out, but not all (eg some issues may be dealt with under the environmental protection act).  The actual number of assessments cannot be obtained by running a report, The information can only be obtained by manually looking at every service request.  Given the number involved this would take more than 18 hours.  The Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004 specify an “appropriate limit” for the amount of time the council needs to spend undertaking that search.  If the council estimates that the time to taken to locate, retrieve and extract the information requested will exceed the appropriate limit, then under Section 12 of the Act, it is not obliged to comply with that request.

The appropriate limit currently specified by the Regulations for local authorities is £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending two and a half working days in locating, retrieving and extracting the information from where it is stored.  We estimate that the cumulative time it would take officers to retrieve the complete records you are seeking would exceed the appropriate limit. Therefore, we are unable to disclose the information you are seeking.

Note (2) – the number of assessments for HMOs is approximate and is based on the number of service requests relating to disrepair in HMOs and the number of HMO licences issued.  The actual figure is likely to be higher as not all properties inspected will proceed to full licensing, but again the only way of obtaining the information would be to manually look at each case.

	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13
S3	21	247	419	388	309	209	176
S4	403	787	986	905	1054	1154	1089
HMOs	176	144	81	281	200	209	195

B. None

C. None

E. The number of assessments carried out as a result of requests for financial assistance from the owner or tenants is approximate and is based on the number of empty property grants or loans given out in each year as each will have involved an HHSRS assessment. The only financial assistance that has generally been available to tenants is Disabled Facilities Grant and Energy Grant or Energy Loan, none of which generally require an HHSRS assessment to be carried out.

	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13
Requests for financial assistance by owner or tenants	7	27	5	17	45	37	14

Service of Notices on Landlords

Question:  In relation to Category 1 hazards how many of the following notices have been served on private landlords each year since the legislation came into force:

a.    improvement notice 

b.    prohibition order

c.    hazard awareness notice

d.   emergency remedial action

e.   emergency prohibition order

f.    demolition order ( section 265 of the Housing Act 1985 as amended)

g.    clearance area ( section 289 of the 1985 Act as amended.)

The reply: Notices served, category one hazards

	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13
Improvement	218	171	110	144	167	204	200
Prohibition	1	5	1	2	2	0	2
Hazard Aware	2	1	0	0	2	2	2
Emer remedial	0	4	2	1	0	1	0
Emer prohibit	1	0	0	0	2	0	0
Demolition	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clearance	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Hazards Notices

Question: How many notices have been served in relation to Category 2 hazards?

a.    improvement notices;

b.   prohibition orders;

c.    hazard awareness notices;

Reply: Notices served, category two hazards

	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13
Improvement	72	100	139	94	95	106	149
Prohibition	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
Hazard Aware	0	0	0	0	0	2	2

Empty Properties

Question: How many notices have been served in respect of empty dwellings?

Reply: Nine. These are included within the figures above.

Council Works in Default

Question: How many dwellings have been subject to the Council undertaking works in default?

Reply: ‘Works carried out in default (housing act notices only)’

2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13
13	24	17	14	9	11	9

Negotiating Rent Reductions

Question: Has the Council been able to negotiate rent reductions for private tenants on housing benefit as part of an agreement with private sector landlords to voluntarily remedy hazards, instead of the Council having to take any of the above actions taken against them?

Reply; This is not something we have done.’

Multiple Ownership

Question: In respect of all action taken how many private sector landlords are multiple owners by numbers of categories?

Reply: We do not record this information.

Research on Private Landlords’ Ownership

Question: Does the Council research how many dwellings private sector landlords (whether individuals or companies) own and whether there are links between both individuals and companies as part of a property owning network?  

Reply: Not as a matter of course, but this has been done on occasion if we have noted similarities in housing conditions/behaviour towards tenants in several properties.