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25th June At a full meeting of Oxford City Council today, a majority of Councillors backed a Green motion requesting that the limited resources available to inspect those private rented properties used by the Council are better targeted to focus on landlords with a poor track record. In addition, the Council will no longer accept inspection reports provided by the landlords - and will instead rely on in-house or independent surveys. Says Cllr Benjamin, "With proper resources we would be checking every private rented property on a regular basis, but given the current Government funding constraints this is not possible. This motion offers the best compromise - to target those landlords with a bad track record rather than randomly selecting properties. The result will be better accommodation for those most in need and long term savings for the Council as the standards of properties are improved." Text of the original motion below: Inspection of Private Rented Properties (Proposer – Councillor Benjamin) "This Council recognises and regrets that there are limited resources available to inspect every private rented property used by the City Council. This Council acknowledges that there are known landlords within the City who have a track record of providing poor accommodation, and that the Council often incurs additional costs when dealing with these properties. Council therefore asks the Executive Board to request that:- (1) Officers use Environmental Health and Housing case history information to target the known poorer landlords for inspection; (2) Using the available evidence that shows that one particular landlord is a persistent offender, officers prioritise Council resources to check every property that this particular landlord manages as a matter of urgency; (3) When referring to inspections of private rented properties, Officers only use reports provided in-house or by independent inspectors, and not those provided by the landlords."
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