The glass ceiling for house in multiple occupation licensing fees was shattered when councillors in Lewisham, London, set a price of £500 on each bedroom.
That makes the cost of a five-year HMO licence for a three-bedroomed home in the borough £1,500, while a licence for a six-bedroomed home will hit £3,000.
The councillors did agree to cap the fee at a maximum £5,000 per HMO, which makes licensing larger HMOs more affordable although few properties will exceed the 10 bedrooms needed to max out the charge for the licence.
The councillors were told the average HMO mandatory fee for a five-bedroom home in London was £952 and £698 for a three-bedroom home under an additional licensing scheme.
Lewisham Council charges £180 a bedroom currently, so a five bedroomed HMO costs a landlord £900.
The increase for the five -year HMO licence is more than 275%.
Meanwhile, Waltham Forest Council, East London, has chalked up the first prosecution under a selective licensing scheme introduced in April 2015.
Coral Dawkins, 57, admitted letting a home without a licence for 11 years at Thamesmead Magistrates Court.
She was fined £800 and ordered to pay costs of £717.
Councillor Khevyn Limbajee, cabinet member for housing said: “This is the first time we have successfully prosecuted a landlord for not licensing a property and it certainly won’t be the last. We’ve worked hard to get the message out since we launched the scheme a year ago, so there is simply no excuse not to have a licence in place by now.
“We’ve now had 18,000 applications so far, which shows that decent, responsible landlords understand the need to obtain a licence. We will continue our programme of enforcement until every single privately rented home in the borough is signed up to the scheme.”
