Group seeks leave to appeal against court rental licence verdict

A group of agents, landlords and other property professionals has applied to appeal the decision to block an attempt to overturn a council's rental sector licensing plan.

The Croydon Property Forum claims the local authority had failed to take "reasonable steps" to consult over the scheme, which will see landlords charged up to £750 per property over a five-year period. 

In a message on its website, the forum says:

“Our legal team believe there are strong grounds for an appeal and that such an appeal would be in the public interest – there were many flaws in the way the Council carried out their consultation, and we have presented many arguments against the judgment in our appeal. ....

“If our case goes to appeal, there will be three judges, which will make the process much more objective and give us an opportunity to have the correct legal test of fairness of the consultation procedure applied to the facts ....

“Cases regarding interpretation of the correct law applied to a given set of facts are frequently won only on appeal. We believe we have a good chance of getting the Appeal Court’s permission for a full appeal hearing, but the main thing standing in our way is not a weak case, but lack of funding.”

The forum is appealling for funds through its website.

In Enfield, north London, landlord Constantinos Regas successfully sought leave to appeal an original court decision and eventually succeeded - through a legal decision and subsequent political move by Enfield council - to get both a selective and an additional private letting licensing scheme quashed.