Landlord registration
46.Part 3 of the Act also amends the 2004 Act by including provisions for the introduction of a time limit of 12 months for the determination of landlord registration applications.
47.Section 21 inserts a new section 85B into the 2004 Act and requires that local authorities determine applications for registration (as required by section 84 of the 2004 Act) made by relevant persons under section 83 of the 2004 Act, within 12 months of receipt of the application.
48.New section 85B(3) allows a local authority to apply to the FTT for an extension to this 12 month period. The period may be extended by such a period as the FTT thinks is appropriate, but may not be extended unless the application is made before the 12 month period expires (subsection (4)). The person making the application for registration is entitled to be party to any application for an extension to the 12 month period (subsection (5)). The decision of the FTT on the application will be final (subsection (6)).
49.New section 85B(7) provides that in the event of a local authority failure to determine the landlord application within the 12 month period, authorisation is deemed to have been granted automatically by the local authority. The authority is to be treated as having entered the relevant person in the register maintained by it under section 82(1) of the 2004 Act on the day by which the authority was required to determine the application. Unless the relevant person is otherwise removed from the register in accordance with Part 8 of the 2004 Act, that person is to be treated as being removed from the register on the expiry of the period of 12 months from that date (subsection (7)(b)).
50.Where new section 85B(7) applies (where the local authority has not determined an application within 12 months of its receipt), details of the relevant person’s name and registration number must be entered in the register maintained by the authority under section 82(1) of the 2004 Act (subsection (8)). Subsection (9) provides that (subject to the modifications specified in subsection (10)) the relevant person is treated for all purposes as having been registered by virtue of section 84(2)(a) of the 2004 Act (in other words, as if the authority has made a positive determination of the application). The requirement for an authority to remove the entry from the register three years from the day on which the entry is made in the register in terms of section 84(6) of the 2004 Act does not apply to deemed granted applications (in other words to those applications entered by virtue of a local authority having not determined it within 12 months of the date of receipt of the application) (subsection (10)(c)) .
51.The other modifications specified in subsection (10) are that in the case where an applicant does not specify the name of a person who acts for the landlord in respect of a property specified in the application under section 83(1)(c), the applicant is to be treated as being registered by virtue of section 84(3). Where an applicant specifies at least one house, and the name and address of someone acting in respect of a property specified in the application under section 83(1)(c), the applicant is to be treated as being registered by virtue of section 84(4).
52.Section 21(2) amends section 86(1)(a) of the 2004 Act so that a person entered into the register by virtue of a deemed granted application is notified of that fact as soon as practicable after the entry has been made.