A bid by Liberal Vannin leader Lawrie Hooper to have the proposed Landlord Registration Bill examined by a committee has been rejected by MHKs.

Landlord registration was recommended by the island’s Safeguarding Board as part of a serious case management review into the death of a vulnerable man who had been living in ’poor’ private rented accommodation.

The Bill will allow the introduction of mandatory regulation of landlords and their properties, and enable enforcement of minimum standards.

While some MHKs have welcomed the Bill and said it is a necessary piece of legislation, the Manx Landlords’ Association said it wasn’t properly consulted upon.

This week Ramsey MHK Mr Hooper said he didn’t believe the Bill would achieve its stated aims and needed greater scrutiny before it returns to the House of Keys for the clauses stage.

He said: ’The Minister [Tim Baker] talked about substantial work still to be done on this Bill, so if we don’t believe the Minister has completed his substantial work before bringing the Bill why on earth should we trust him to do the work that needs doing between now and clauses stage?

’He made a number of very confident assertions actually that the properties under this Bill would be subject to inspection. That’s not the case, this Bill doesn’t change the inspection regime at all.

’It does however give powers to the Department of Infrastructure to take on the inspection so it was interesting that he pointed the finger at his DEFA colleagues and said "well it won’t be us, it will be someone else doing that".’

Mr Hooper described the Bill as ’unworkable’ and said he ’wasn’t completely convinced that the department grasps just how bad this piece of legislation really is’.

He said the department had not listened to concerns that had been raised.

His plea for a committee to established was seconded by Clare Barber (Douglas East) who said while MHKs want landlord registration, it currently ’does not achieve the protection of vulnerable people’. She also said in its current form the Bill would benefit only ’unscrupulous’ property owners.

Despite Mrs Barber’s support, Mr Hooper struggled to win round many other members. Her constituency colleague Christ Robertshaw said he ’completely agreed’ with Mr Hooper and Mrs Barber but would be putting his faith in Mr Baker’s ’sincere intentions’.

Mr Baker said that a timescale of April for a committee to respond would ’effectively kill the Bill’ and that if members wanted a committee then they shouldn’t have supported its second reading.

Mr Hooper’s bid was soundly defeated, with 20 MHKs voting against it.