The Letting Centre

House in Multiple Occupation ?

Question: 386
I have been told about the new HMO legislation from my local authority. I have been letting out individual rooms in a three-storey house for some years. I do not want to be involved with licensing and the council forcing me to do lots of improvement works. I am told that I should be able to avoid HMO designation by letting to my tenants under a single tenancy agreement in the future. Is this correct.
Answer:
Unfortunately not. It is unlikely, under the new legislation, that you will be able to avoid HMO licensing merely by drawing up a single tenancy agreement. The technique of letting to joint tenants as a single group under a single tenancy agreement was a technique for avoiding HMO designation under the previous legislation. The new definition of HMO in the Housing Act 2004 avoids this problem - this was one of the key reasons for Government introducing the new legislation. Under the new definition, it is normally sufficient that there unrelated people (i.e. no family relationships) living together in a property to qualify as an HMO. The fact that your building comprises three storeys again makes it likely that you will need to be licensed under the new legislation - especially if you let to five or more people.
References:	Pages:	Hyperlinks:
Letting Handbook	Chapter 16	letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
Letting Factsheet No 23		factsheet-23
Letting Factsheet No 40		factsheet-40

For more information, discuss on the Forum