Residential landlords in Northern Ireland MUST be licensed but we are still finding some who are not, risking fines or prosecution. In England, a landlord was recently fined £47,000 for failing to obtain licenses for several rented properties. Kamran Adil could have avoided the fine but just kept ignoring warnings from Durham County Council. Some landlords may not be registering as they are trying to evade income tax, but HMRC have other ways to find them. It creates a problem for tenants when they go to move - as part of good pre-tenancy checks we and other agents ask for a rent reference and the first thing we do to check the authenticity of that reference is to look up the landlord and property on the register. If they are not licensed it can look like the reference is fake. Tenants should ensure that their landlord is licensed to prevent this from happening. 

Landlords - do you know all the letting regs? You don't have to if you are one of our clients, we will keep you right.