FOI request (FOIR-691343079)

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request data on houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) in your jurisdiction.

Specifically, I would like to request the following information in spreadsheet format, by calendar year from 2019 to 2024.

If any individual parts of the questions are unavailable or would exceed cost exemptions, please disregard those parts.

Similarly, if your records do not extend to 2019, or doing so would exceed cost exemptions, then please start at the earliest available year.

If it is not possible for another reason to provide the information requested, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 15 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request. 

1. How many reports of unlicensed HMOs were received, how many investigations of unlicensed HMOs were conducted, and how many were identified. Additionally, if recorded, please also provide the number of those investigations which were conducted jointly with police/law enforcement.

2. Can you provide an estimate as to how many unlicensed HMOs there are in the council area? (I understand this will be an approximate figure and not exact.)

3. Regarding enforcement action taken against unlicensed HMO landlords, please provide the number of fines/civil penalties, management orders, banning orders, rent repayment orders, and/or criminal prosecutions by year over the period. If it is difficult to access this information, then please limit it to just the number of fines and criminal investigations if more readily available. 

4. Relating to the above number of civil penalties/fines and criminal prosecutions for unlicensed HMOs, what was the financial value of the fines ordered to be paid by year over the period, and if recorded, how many prosecutions resulted in criminal conviction?

5. How many licensed HMOs are there in your area? Please also break this down by year, providing a snapshot of the number of HMO licenses as of 31st December each year, if this is feasible. Alternatively, please provide the number of current active HMO licenses held, and any historic snapshots that you may hold with relevant dates.

6. How many housing condition-related warrants have been executed in general for all types of housing? Please break this down by year and also by whether the warrant was related to overcrowding or breach of housing notices, if accessible

7. If recorded, please provide the same information on housing warrants for HMOs specifically.