House in multiple occupation

callum1875

can anyone help me by telling me about what a HMO is and what it means and what the penalty's are if it is broken

Thank you in advance
Callum

poppysarah

Ask your local council. Some have different (higher) standards than others.
Should be on their website.

clutton_2

go to your local councils website to read how they interpret HMO regulations... but please dont even think of "avoiding" the rules... you risk a £50,000 fine if you put tenants lives at risk by non-compliance..... and you risk killing them if you do not comply with fire regs..... andyes landlords HAVE been so prosecuted and fined and some have gone to prison...

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

go to your local councils website to read how they interpret HMO regulations... but please dont even think of "avoiding" the rules... you risk a £50,000 fine if you put tenants lives at risk by non-compliance..... and you risk killing them if you do not comply with fire regs..... andyes landlords HAVE been so prosecuted and fined and some have gone to prison...

AFAIAA the maximum fine for operating an HMO without a licence is £20,000 although many of those LLs do also get fined for other offences.

Callum - see here for an example of what happens to LLs who think they can ignore the regs

Not only does the LL face prosecution in such cases, the Ts can then claim for a Rent Repayment Order for the period of time in which the property was unlicensed: see here for Ts who got their rent back.

Are you a LL Callum or a T whose LL is failing to comply?

00ec25

if your location is relevant then Scotland has stricter rules than England re licensing an HMO

your council website explains it here along with the Scottish Executive's detailed rules

Bearing in mind tbs' post - Glasgow council appears to chase unregistered LL hard http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/glasgow_council_housing.htm

Jowo_2

The OP is based in Scotland. From memory (could be wrong), the HMO licencing was bought into Glasgow more than 15 years ago in response to the deaths of students in a flat with poor fire safety compliance. The following article says it was introduced in 2000 but that must be the revamped rules as it was in force when I lived there in '95 but probably earlier.

http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/glasgow_council_housing.htm

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/YourHome/HousingOptions/PrivateRenting/HMOs/

When the Scottish landlord registration scheme was more recently bought in, they did introduce Rent Penalty Notices to force landlords to comply (whereby the local council instruct tenants of non-registered landlords to stop paying the rent to flush them out). My understanding is that the introduced the RPN in response to the fact that their experience of HMO legislation is that the low fines and slow investigation of HMO cases meant some landlords weren't bothered about not complying. The first article says the fines are equivalent to a month's rent.

callum1875

Thank you everyone who has posted on this thread as it has given me a greater understanding of what an HMO is as i didnt understand before and it put me in a better pstion as I am flat hunting at the moment

thank you everyone again

Callum