LANDLORDS who rent out homes with multiple residents will face massive increases in their licence fees from April next year.

East Lothian Council’s licensing sub-committee has agreed to allow the first increase in the cost of the Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence for 15 years.

And to bring it into line with the Retail Price Index, which has increased by 88.7 per cent over that period, the fees will nearly double.

It means anyone renting out property with between three to five unrelated occupants will have to pay at least £400 for the three-year licence, which currently costs £225.

And Queen Margaret University, which is the biggest multiple occupancy landlord in the county, could face a bill of up to £28,000 – almost three times what it currently pays for its licences.

The committee was told there were only 32 HMO licences currently issued in East Lothian and nine of them were for residential blocks for students at Queen Margaret University.

The vast majority of the remaining ones were for small three to five occupancy properties.

Ewan Ritchie, from the licensing department, told the committee that East Lothian Council had not increased its fees for the HMO licences since 2000.

When Queen Margaret University moved into the county it agreed a deal in which the institute paid £10,000 for its nine HMO licences, which cover residence for about 800 students.

Mr Ritchie asked the committee to delegate power to licensing officials to allow them to negotiate with Queen Margaret University to come to a figure when its licences are due for renewal next summer, saying it might be they could be given a discount of between 50 per cent to 80 per cent on the cost, as happens in other local authority areas.

This was approved by the committee; however, plans to introduce the increase in fees for anyone renewing a licence after July 1 this year were rejected.

The committee instead agreed the new fees would be introduced from April 1 next year to give landlords the time to prepare for the extra cost.

Councillor John McNeil, committee convenor, said: “I can understand concerns at what is a 90 per cent increase because people may think it is the council trying to make money, but it is only covering costs and we cannot make profit from these licences.

“For the average landlord with a small HMO, we are talking about finding an extra £60 a year – that is barely £1 a week.”