Wandsworth Council’s new landlord licensing scheme has got off to a rocky start, with an online portal so poorly designed it needs its own five-minute tutorial video.
Landlords are now obliged to pay the council £850 for the right to rent out their properties, but first they have to navigate what one described as a “clumsily adapted” system with confusing labels, backwards navigation and technical glitches that force workarounds.
If you’re wondering where the money is going, some of it at least went on Tube advertising urging those same landlords to submit applications before the 31 December “early-bird” deadline.
The council has collected approximately £5-6 million since the scheme began in July, with fees likely passed to tenants through higher rents. But the poorly designed portal adds frustration beyond the cost, making an already expensive scheme difficult to use.
Wandsworth landlord licensing is expanding in April to include East Putney, West Putney and Northcote, and targeted Tube advertising has appeared at stations including East Putney in the run-up to the deadline.
A system designed to frustrate
The council’s tutorial video walks applicants through a 12-step process requiring multiple document uploads, floor plans and detailed property information. Non-UK residents “cannot complete the online form and must download the PDF version and submit the application via email instead.” Files are limited to 16 megabytes (Gmail limits attachments to 25 MB). Complete “the incorrect form” and you’re rejected, forcing you to start again.
Richard, writing on Property118, detailed the specific problems. The portal asks for “Room Name Area” when it simply wants you to name the room. No dropdown menu to help. When you need to add another room, the “add row button” sits above the previous entries rather than at the end, forcing you to scroll back up the page to find it.
The biggest headache involves Energy Performance Certificates. The official EPC register shows your certificate on screen but won’t let you download it as a PDF, even though the licensing portal demands a PDF upload. The workaround: print to PDF manually, save it, then upload it. Extra steps because two council systems don’t talk to each other.
All this takes time. Time spent figuring out confusing labels, creating workarounds for technical problems, potentially resubmitting applications that got rejected. The £850 fee will likely get passed to tenants through rent, but the badly designed system just makes an expensive scheme harder to comply with than it needs to be.
Spending on ads for a broken system
While landlords struggled with the portal, professional advertisements appeared across the Tube network in late December. Targeted placement at East Putney station promoted the “early-bird discount” expiring 31 December 2025.
This fits a pattern we documented in June, when the council publicised landlord enforcement while refusing to name properties or landlords. In November, we revealed the council is prosecuting private landlords for fire safety failures identical to those in its own housing. In December, we reported the council is blocking Freedom of Information requests for data that would indicate whether the new service is actually improving things, or simply bringing in some much-needed revenue for the council.
The tutorial video and PDF workarounds show the council knew the system had problems. But they launched it anyway and put advertising money behind it.
Built for the council, not the people using it
The system works for the council. It captures the information they need through a mandatory 12-step process.
But as with most rushed or poorly considered regulation, the regulator focuses on their needs – getting revenue and compliance documentation – while forcing users to struggle with bad design and technical glitches.
The £850 selective licensing fee works out to approximately £12-14 per month added to rent over the five-year licence period. That cost will likely get passed to tenants. But the time and frustration of navigating confusing interfaces, creating workarounds, and potentially resubmitting applications is an additional burden for landlords trying to meet the requirements.
With 5,955 applications received by December and expansion to three more wards from April, thousands more tenants will be paying higher rents. But there’s no proof the money is delivering actual safety improvements, because the council won’t provide the data to show it.
