Chancellor Rachel Reeves failed to gain a selecting landlord licence when renting out her home in Dulwich, attracting some ire from the property industry.<\/p>\n
The breach happened after she moved into No 11 Downing Street following Labour\u2019s July 2024 election victory.<\/p>\n
The issue has been blamed on Reeves\u2019 lettings agency, which apparently didn\u2019t tell her she needed a licence.<\/p>\n
The problem came to light on Wednesday when the Daily Mail<\/em> approached the Chancellor for comment, after which Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer met later that evening.<\/p>\n Reeves wrote: \u201cThis was an inadvertent mistake. As soon as it was brought to my attention, we took immediate action and have applied for the licence.<\/p>\n \u201cI sincerely apologise for this error and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.\u201d<\/p>\n \t <\/p>\n Phil Turtle, compliance director of Landlord Licensing & Defence said Reeves has committed a strict liability crime under section 95 of the Housing Act 2004, with unlimited fines if prosecuted in court.<\/p>\n Alternatively can issue a civil financial penalty up to \u00a330,000 for a breach like Reeves\u2019.<\/p>\n Turtle said: \u201cCouncils treat this as one of the most heinous crimes possible and we see dozens of small landlords every week fined often between \u00a312,000 to \u00a320,000 for this exact same criminal offence.<\/p>\n \u201cJust like speeding, it is a strict liability crime and there is no defence of \u201cI didn\u2019t know\u201d or my letting agent didn\u2019t tell me. Councils are absolutely merciless in prosecuting small landlords because for them, fining landlords has become a major revenue stream.<\/p>\n \u201cWill Reeve\u2019s apology get her off the hook? It certainly wouldn\u2019t get anyone else who rented out their former family home and didn\u2019t license it. Council\u2019s see these landlords as low hanging fruit for their revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n Prime Minister Keir Starmer has declined launching an investigation into Reeves\u2019 housing dealings, saying an apology is \u201csufficient\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chancellor Rachel Reeves failed to gain a selecting landlord licence when renting out her home in Dulwich, attracting some ire from the property industry. The breach happened after she moved into No 11 Downing Street following Labour\u2019s July 2024 election victory. The issue has been blamed on Reeves\u2019 lettings agency, which apparently didn\u2019t tell her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-second-home"],"yoast_head":"\n