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Selective licensing breach as tenant leverage: the council enforcement walkthrough (RRA Day 8, May 2026)

Selective licensing is one of the quietest superpowers a private renter has, and most tenants do not know it exists. In dozens of council areas across England, every privately let property has to be licensed by the council. A landlord letting an unlicensed property faces a fine of up to GBP 30,000, a criminal offence, and now a rent repayment order of up to twelve months' rent under the expanded Renters' Rights Act regime. This walkthrough is the tenant-side playbook: confirming the scheme, checking the public register, an FOI template, the council enforcement route, and the parallel RRO claim - all from paperwork failure.