Landlord says he has to hike tenants’ rent or sell his property under new council rules

The anonymous dad-of-four, who needs to pay £1,090 to register his home in Leicester with a new council scheme, said he is already subsidising for rocketing energy prices

A landlord says he will have to either hike his tenants’ rent or sell his property because he cannot afford the cost of a new council scheme.

The dad-of-four needs to pay a £1,090 fee to register his home with Leicester City Council ‘s landlord licensing programme.

Under the scheme, the authority plans to crack down on rogue landlords and improve living conditions for tenants in certain wards.

But the homeowner, who rents out to students, says he simply cannot afford to pay the sum after already subsidising for soaring energy costs.

He told Leicestershire Live : “I’m not one of your landlords with 50 million properties, I’m a simple family guy with children and it’s just a way to carry on with life.

“I do things properly and generally try not to increase rent because, if you’ve got a decent tenant, it’s worth more than an extra X amount per month.

“I bought the property not that long ago through the people who run Addict Dance Academy. They’re trying to help their students who find it difficult to find accommodation.

“Especially first-year students who have just left home and it’s quite full-on, you’ve not got your stabilisers of mum and dad around you. 

Anytime there’s a problem, sometimes there’s a problem with the boiler or whatever, I jump on it immediately because of who they are.

Had I known the council were going to start messing about, it would have put me off and I wouldn’t have bought it.”

The landlord claimed he is paying an extra £250 a month after agreeing gas, electricity and water costs at a fixed rate.

He said: “I don’t need the extra cost and aggravation because it’s difficult enough as it is, especially now, in the current climate.

“What will happen is I will have to load the cost of this onto these kids who are in their first year away from home because I’ve just been hit from the bills-included side, which means they pay more money which is not great for mum and dad or the kids whose grants aren’t going to go much further.

Or I have to sell the property because I can’t afford it, which has the knock-on effect of a well-run property going on the market and there being one less facility for students.

“If you go down the street where my property is and look around and there’s nothing, there’s no graffiti, no litter, it’s families who live there.

“If they can prove to me that my street itself is a high noise and crime area, I would get it. But it isn’t.”

The policy was introduced in the Stoneygate, Westcotes, Fosse, Braunstone Park, Rowley Fields and Saffron wards at the start of this month.

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