This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'How many improvement notices have been issued to private sector landlords?'.



My Ref: 
IG-12918  
 
 
Your Ref: 
 
 
Contact: 
Freedom of Information Team 
 
Email: 
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx  
Freedom of Information Team 
Information Compliance 
Legal & Governance 
2nd Floor 
Loxley House 
Station Street 
Nottingham 
Requester 
NG2 3NG 
 
 
At contact address specified for request number above 
Tel: 0115 876 4376 
Email: 
 
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx 
 
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk  
 
12th November 2019  
 
 
Dear Requester 
 
Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) 
 
The council has considered your request which was received on 15th October 2019 
and our response to your questions is shown below. 
 
1)  How many improvement notices and hazard notices have been given to 
private sector landlords concerning rented (and vacant, to let) properties in 
the Nottingham City boundary? 

 
Since 01/01/2014 until 30/09/2019 there has been a total of 335 
 
 
2)  Could you provide details on the number of notices and the types of notice 

on a yearly basis? 
 
Improvement notices: 
2014    
-              16 
2015    
-              56 
2016    
-              64 
2017    
-              41 
2018    
-              30 
2019    
-              33 (to date) 
TOTAL  
-              240 
 
Hazard Awareness Notices: 
2014    
-              5 
2015    
-              46 
2016    
-              17 
2017    
-              3 
2018    
-              19 
2019    
-              5 (to date) 
TOTAL 
-              95 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
3)  What is the most common reason improvement notices have been issued? 
 
 
Whilst this information may be recorded, it is not held in an easily reportable format. It 
has therefore been estimated to answer your request would exceed the appropriate 
limit. As per Regulation 4(3) of the Fees Regulations, when estimating the cost of 
compliance, the council can take into account the cost of the following activities: 
• 
determining whether you hold the information; 
• 
finding the requested information, or records containing the information; 
• 
retrieving the information or records; and 
• 
extracting the requested information from records 
 
Whilst information on the details improvement notices is held, details are not 
categorised by subject or the reason for the notice. As such, in order to answer this 
part of your request officers would have to view each notice individually to determine 
the reason they were sent. For the time period requested, there have been 240 
improvement notices issued (as per the answer to question two). At an estimate of 5 
minutes to view the details of each notice to determine the reason for issue, this 
would equate to over 20 hours work to extract the requested information (240 x 5 ÷ 
60). Due to the amount of information being requested it has therefore been 
estimated this activity would exceed the appropriate limit. The council has decided to 
exempt itself from complying with these parts of your request as the cost incurred in 
providing a response would exceed the appropriate limit of £450, which is equivalent 
to requests that would require more than 18 hours continuous work. 
 
As the council is withholding the information that you have requested as detailed 
above under section 12 please accept this letter as a partial refusal notice issued in 
accordance with section 17 of the Act. 
 
Paragraph 14 of the section 45 Code of Practice states that when the council is not 
obliged to comply with a request because it would exceed the appropriate limit to do 
so, then it: “…should consider providing an indication of what, if any, information 
could be provided within the cost ceiling.” 
 
In accordance with section 16(1) of the act, the council has a duty to provide advice 
and assistance to you so far as is reasonable to do so. If you wish to obtain 
information on the most common reason for an improvement notice for a specific year 
then you can submit a new FOI request.  
 
4) Have any banning orders been issued to any landlords in Nottingham? 
 
(I am interested in data since 1st January 2014) 

 
There have been no banning orders for the time period requested.  
 
5) How many complaints has Nottingham City Council received concerning 
breaches of the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) 2018 and Housing 
Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)? And; 

 
None 
 
 

 
6) How many of these complaints have been upheld since the act came into 
 
force this year
 
 
None 
 
 
You are free to use any information supplied for your own personal use. If the 
information provided is marked as published under an Open Government Licence you 
are free to reuse it, subject to the licence terms. However, if the information is not 
published under an Open Government Licence and you wish to reuse it, for example, 
by publishing the information or issuing copies to the public you are required to 
request permission for re-use of this information under the Re-use of Public Sector 
Information Regulations 2005 (RPSI). Your RPSI request must be in writing and 
include your name and address for correspondence, and specify the information you 
want to re-use and the purpose you intend to use it for.  
 
If you are unhappy with the response provided or with the handling of your request, 
you can ask for an internal review in writing stating the reasons for your 
dissatisfaction. Your request for an internal review should be made to the council 
within forty working days of the date of this letter. Please quote reference IG-12918 in 
all communications. 
 
You can contact the Freedom of Information Team either by email: 
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx or writing to the Freedom of Information Team, 
Information Compliance, Legal & Governance, 2nd Floor, Loxley House, Station 
Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. 
 
If you remain unhappy after receiving the response to your initial complaint you can 
request an independent review from the Information Commissioner's Office at 
FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe 
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
. You may also contact the 
Information Commissioner's Office by telephone on 01625 545745 or by email at 
xxxx@xxx.xxx.xxx.xx. 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
Freedom of Information Team 
Legal & Governance 
Nottingham City Council