A London landlord has been hit with a �9,880 rent repayment order after failing to convince a tribunal that his tenants' application was not legal.

The landlord admitted that he had held a selective licence which limited occupation to five people from one household but hadn't applied for the necessary additional licence after renting the property in Barking Road, London, to tenants from more than one household.

He told a First Tier Property Tribunal that he ceased to commit an offence on 12th May 2021 when he made a statutory notification to Newham Council, arguing that the three tenants had until 12th May 2022 to submit their application, which wasn't made until July 2022 and was thereby out of time.

But he had served a Section 21 notice on 9^th May 2021 which meant the property was still an unlicensed HMO.

Proper notification

The tribunal ruled that at the date of service, no Section 21 notice could be given in relation to the property meaning that it was not a proper notification.

The landlord owns and lets out six properties and is a director of a company that owns and lets out one other property which has an HMO licence.

It heard that he uses professional managers and is also a member of a landlord organisation.

The tribunal ruled that the length of the offence was of concern as it stretched over 22 months from August 2019 to July 2021.

Despite this, it considered that the property was in good order and was in a fire-safe condition, so set the RRO at 50% of the �19,760 rent claimed between July 2020 and July 2021, along with fees of �300.