Claimant to have application for JR of landlord scheme heard on 2 October

A claimant seeking to challenge a London borough’s landlord licensing scheme will have his application for permission to bring judicial review proceedings heard early next month.

The Cabinet at Enfield Council adopted its scheme in April this year. It is due to be introduced on 1 April 2015.

The application by Constantinos Regas, who owns one property in the borough, will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on 2 October.

The claimant is being advised by Alex Peebles of law firm Irwin Mitchell and Richard Clayton QC of Kings Chambers/4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

Regas said: "I have always said that good quality housing is a human right. Antisocial behaviour by tenants is often linked to problems like rent arrears, so landlords already have every incentive to deal with issues when they arise.

“Enfield Council has failed to demonstrate that housing in the borough is badly managed, or that there is a clear link between antisocial behaviour and the private rented sector. I am appalled that the council can label tenants in this way."

He added: "I have put the council on notice that we have strong grounds of irrationality, unlawfulness, impropriety and unreasonableness. We are adding a further ground showing contravention of European law."

Regas said he was seeking to crowd fund his case by asking landlords and managing agents to contribute £50 per property.

Enfield has previously said it will vigorously defend the judicial review. The scheme had been introduced to reduce anti-social behaviour in the borough, it added.

According to Regas, the local authority had initially had the case thrown out after a ‘without notice’ application to the court. However, he had since renewed his application.