Legal specialists at Landlord Licensing & Defence say they have “dismantled” a rent repayment claim of £17,000 before the case reached a tribunal.
Activist group Justice for Tenants had argued that a landlord was unlicensed and wanted to recover rent, but evidence showed the landlord had submitted a valid licence application to a council – Lewisham in London – years earlier.
The landlord had met all legal requirements under the Housing Act 2004, and although the council had not issued a final licence, the live application gave full legal protection.
Justice for Tenants withdrew its claim after Desmond Taylor, casework director at Landlord Licensing & Defence, submitted evidence and legal arguments.
He says: “They came for £17,000, and left with nothing but a lesson in the law.
“If a licence is duly applied for and the local authority sits on its hands, that’s their failure, not the landlord’s.
“Lewisham took the money, acknowledged the application, and failed to follow through. That’s not a criminal offence — it’s a bureaucratic cock-up.”
Earlier this year Landlord Licensing & Defence secured a full dismissal in another case – Kamal Boulema & ORS v Hoppe-Foster Ventures Ltd – and it says this latest victory makes clear that a valid licence application is a complete defence against such claims.
This article is taken from Landlord Today