Shared House/HIMO

Floating_Voter

Thanks 00ec25 - your reply supports all my misgivings!

I have no plans to become a property investor/professional landlord, but there is a particular property in which I (reluctantly) have an interest, and I am investigating ways to make the best of the situation I am in.

But I have to say that the harder it becomes for landlords to be able to provide high quality properties for rent, then the more likely it is that the whole rental market will simply disappear underground, with all the risks involved.

Prostitution is rapidly going the same way, thanks to Ms Harriet Harman, but I guess that's for a different website...

xx

unorthodox_left-winger

I've been in the process of purchasing a BTL property, something that commenced before the new regulations came in and hence I was unaware of the complications caused by the legislation until recently. My potential lender has asked nothing about planning permission but according to the council concerned any application will be judged on the criteria of amenities, parking and whether it will cause an adverse effect on the stability of the neighbourhood (e.g too many student houses etc). As a benchmark I was told that an application could take up to 8 weeks to consider for a flat rate fee in the region of 350. I would echo the comments above that you can apply for planning permission on any property but who wants to take a risk on taking out a mortgage only to find 8 weeks later that the potential rental market is cut drastically becuase planning permission has not been granted? And by the way whilst its theoretically possible to download the application form from the government website good luck in finding it!

PasturesNew

If landlords made rents cheap enough, people wouldn't have to share :P

planning_officer

Just to update this thread, the Housing Minister today announced the following:

"Housing minister Grant Shapps has announced that councils will have greater flexibility to manage concentrations of shared housing – known as Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) – in their area.
A high concentration of shared homes can sometimes cause problems, especially if too many properties in one area are let to short-term tenants with little stake in the local community. This has been a problem in some cities with high concentrations of students, for instance.
Changes to existing planning legislation will give councils the freedom to choose areas where landlords must submit a planning application to rent their properties to unrelated tenants.

This will enable high concentrations of HMOs to be controlled where local authorities decide there is a problem, but will prevent landlords across the country being driven from the rental market by high costs and red tape.

The definition of a small HMO (the C4 use class) will remain and permitted development rights will be extended to allow all changes between the C4 and C3 classes without the need for planning applications. In areas where there is a need to control HMO development, local authorities will be able to use an Article 4 direction to remove these permitted development rights and require planning applications for such changes of use."


Therefore - anyone will shortly be able to change between Use Classes C3 (a 'normal' dwelling) and Use Class C4 (a HMO) as permitted development, and will not need to apply to the Council for planning permission to either turn a single dwelling into a HMO, or turn a HMO back into a single house.