Great 'Flatmate MoneySaving' Hunt

harryhound

Beware if creeping HMO compulsory registration legislation.
Big brother is watching.

Kaos_2

harryhound wrote: »

Beware if creeping HMO compulsory registration legislation.
Big brother is watching.

What does that mean? Is it something that we should know about? Or the Letting Agents? *worries*

harryhound

http://yourhmoexpert.com/2008/10/think-carefully-about-the-location-of-your-hmo/

http://www.thebadgeronline.co.uk/news/new-law-attempts-to-clear-out-students/

http://yourhmoexpert.com/2008/09/hmo-regulations-in-a-nutshell/

Kaos_2

harryhound wrote: »

http://yourhmoexpert.com/2008/10/think-carefully-about-the-location-of-your-hmo/

Thanks, that helps a lot!
Well, I see how it could be a problem, but the local council would have to completely backtrack if they decided to do that... they LOVE the Uni and student housing in this town.. to be fair I believe more than half of the residents are students... the town is dead over the summer and many local businesses actually close for the 3 month summer hols!
The council grant instant planning permission for anything to do with students, including giving permission (without telling us) for a halls of residence to be destroyed *into* our back garden and rebuilt twice the height so that some 400 students now look straight into our house from their bedroom windows
So, unless they class none-student HMOs differently to student HMOs, I reckon we'll be safe from the council, lol.

We can't really worry about it until it happens anyway, and we may not have this house in 12 month's time

harryhound

A friend of mine had the 3 story problem and as he could see the problem coming, he sold up and got out.
It is not just the fees but all doors have to be fire doors with a little wired glass window.
The new bedroom doors had to be lockable but with a "goof" feature so that a drunk smoking in bed could get them open in the dark.
Fire alarms have to be mains wired and linked and flashing.
It was one of those Victorian houses where the stairs are in a cupboard in the living room and that is against the rules; so an alternative exit would have to be hacked through to another person's ground floor bed room etc. etc.

Ah yes I remember the building was 140 years old (no sign of fire) and the fire station was 150 yards away.

Kaos_2

I thought I'd seen something on TV about fire regs when it came to 5 people but figured it was down to the landlord to sort, not us. Obviously now I know the reason he didn't need to do anything was because we only have 2 storeys.
Funnily enough, in a straight line we are about 50 yards from the fire station... about 200 yards by road Always reassuring to know how quick they could be here in an emergency
If they ever decide that 2 storey buildings with 5+ occupants need special rules... we'll kick out one of the housemates, LOL!

gnimia

A friend is potentially living in an HMO (6 unrelated people), but it would only qualify if they count mezzanine type floors - ie ground floor, half level with bedroom and bathroom, and then stairs to more bedrooms - I've always wondered about this? Does anyone know? That place will need a hell of a lot of work to make it comply!

PasturesNew

I lived somewhere once where there were six separate bedsits with kitchenettes, but there were two shared bathrooms with a bath/loo. The hot water for the baths was a gas meter, it was the norm to put in one 50p coin every two baths. For loo paper there was a chart on the cupboard in the hallway with everybody's name and you signed under your name for each 2 you bought, so everybody could see who had bought some and if it was about time they did. You'd have seen instantly if somebody was slacking.

PasturesNew

HMO Rules changed on 1 April 2010, the above links are interesting.... but now there's more. It's tighter. As a quick "rule of thumb", if somewhere was an HMO before 1 April (and provable to be), then that's a lesser set of rules ... but any new HMOs after 1 April will have the new rules applied. CBA to google anything on that now... just thought I'd mention it.

harryhound

These are the "old" rules:

http://www.residentiallandlord.co.uk/feature14.htm

And now we have yet another example of "mission creep" that afflicted government spending under labour.
As it it "self financing" I can see local authorities wanting to do more of it; to take up the slack caused by the 25% cut in non self financing budgets.

http://www.residentiallandlord.co.uk/news2352.html
Looks like it is 3 people now not five:eek: and the local authority now has powers to make its own local rules at the drop of a hat. So amateur BTL landlords have a nasty shock coming (Followed by compulsory carbon footprint reduction?)

http://www.residentiallandlord.co.uk/news2312.html