Manchester City Council is expanding across the city with its new licensing programme for private rented properties.

And, as landlords struggle to understand how individual local authorities interpret the licensing requirements of the 2004 Housing Act, the national Residential Landlords Association has warned about an “atmosphere of mistrust”.

Rented property licensing is at the heart of the new legislation’s greatest controversy. “A great many local authorities have struggled to interpret and apply it to their own area and fix their own individual licence fee,” says Lee Dribben, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association - whose members own over 100,000 private rented properties throughout the UK.

As a result the licensing rate among the UK’s private landlords stays low. Yet those who don’t obtain licences risk fines of up to £20,000.

And making matters worse, says the RLA, is the practice of ‘selective licensing’ in problem housing areas. After already introducing selective licensing in Harpurhey, Lightbowne, Bradford and Gorton, Manchester City Council is now trying to identify landlords in the south Manchester areas of Fallowfield, Rusholme, Moss Side and Longsight.

But officially classifying a problem housing area – hoping to target bad landlords, drive up property management standards, combat anti-social behaviour and improve regeneration prospects – can have precisely the opposite effect.

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Landlords and mortgage lenders alike warn that the resulting lack of confidence can simply accelerate an area’s decline and create “social ghettos” in which neighbourhoods and property are devalued even more.

“It’s all part of the most confusing period that landlords, tenants and local government officials have ever faced in the private rented sector,” says Lee Dribben.

“Manchester City Council is now asking landlords to come forward, have their say, and become part of a consultation process but that is going to be difficult in an atmosphere of mistrust where landlords can face fines of up to £20,000 for taking the wrong action.

“It’s no time for buy-to-let amateurs or even professional landlords to be on their own without the protection and support of a professional body to represent their interests.”

A common sense approach to the implementation of Housing Act licence conditions and fees relating to houses in multiple occupation are among several issues on which the Residential Landlords Association is campaigning. They also include self-regulation and local landlord accreditation schemes, the formal acceptance of a Code of Practice laying down expected standards for professional landlords, as well as a re-think on fire safety regulations, housing allowance payments and the Tenancy Deposit Schemes.