Stupid new HMO rules

sciencegeek

Hello everyone
I am renting a 3 story house with 4 other professionals so decided to have a look at these new HMO regulations ive been hearing about as I figured they should apply to us.
What a joke!!!
Our house fails on at least half the points!! and to be honest IM GLAD.
Various things the house is missing include 1) a 'clear sign showing the fire exits' (i think i know where the front door is without a map) 2) an extractor fan in the kitchen (im quite happy opening a window thanks very much), 3) fire doors (installing ugly fire doors in our victorian house would be awful in my opinion), 4) a washbasin in every room (?!?!?!) and best of all its missing 'security' bars on all the downstairs windows (come on are the government having a laugh or what? I want to live in a house not a cell).
Why cant people just be allowed to rent a nice old house in safe and sensible repair and be done with it. Im glad there are gas saftey checks etc required but these extra rules are getting out of hand.

Rant over

:beer:

tomstickland

Sadly, this sort of legislation goes through with good intentions, but is only necessary because of the bad eggs out there. As usual, they'll continue to ignore the legislation and the cost/inconvenience will be passed onto those who follow the letter of the law.

elsien

sciencegeek wrote:

Why cant people just be allowed to rent a nice old house in safe and sensible repair and be done with it. Im glad there are gas saftey checks etc required but these extra rules are getting out of hand.
QUOTE]

Mainly because of the number of unscrupulous landlords who pile in large numbers of people, several sharing a room, do no repairs or safety checks, and whose tenants up till now have had no redress for fear of being turfed out.

If you're professional people with a decent landlord, I can see why you're miffed, but where I live with 3 storey houses filled with lower income/eastern european people, there are lots of disasters waiting to happen.

earner

My neighbour has 24 in his house and 3 in his 12x10' shed (just a shed, not posh, no electricity or proper walls)

The house was up for sale last year and he even advertised it as having people in the shed at £40/week .... because down here people living in sheds and people 6 to a room is normal.

And he's actually one of the better landlords, the house is OK and the people are OK. Around town there are all sorts of poor practices going on

However, it has had a knock on effect in me selling my house as the viewers are looking at the house potential and will be hit by the changes required under this new law as they will have to make the changes to it.

seven-day-weekend

But even if you are an unscrupulous landlord, why does there have to be washbasins in all the rooms and bars on the windows?

Gas safety checks, smoke and CO detectors and fire escapes (within reason) yes....but most people do not have these other things, why are they necessary in an HMO?

chant1l

SDW As a landlord I cannot agree more. The fact that putting handbasins is going to be unsightly, expensive and generally unwanted seems to me just plain pointless government meddling. The "bad eggs" should be caught out by sensible means not by this silliness. I do agree with fire doors in heavily occupied properties but come to think of it I dont have any in a 4 person family home where I live.
Councils can also interpret the new legislation differently as to what is an HMO (some have agreed that they what is and what isn't a grey area to be defined by courts ...excellent..!!).
I have a some three bed houses whch one council could deem HMO's should three unrelated tenants share it...or subsequently move a partner in. I may be breaking the law without even knowing it.

seven-day-weekend

Chant1l, my family home in the UK is lived in by our son who decided to have a lodger when we went to Spain - and then another lodger. I receive the rent from the lodgers (none from my son, who pays some of the bills).

It is a three-storey house and I was worried the Council were going to decide it was an HMO (In which case one of the lodgers would have had to move out).

However, after writing to both my son and myself for further information they have decided that my son and the lodgers are responsible for the Council Tax, not me, and they have never mentioned it being an HMO. Whew!! So I think there is room for interpretation and what is and isn't an HMO.

But I still think the washbasins and bars rules are ridiculous.

(Having said that, I do have bars on the downstairs windows of my Spanish house because a) it is traditional in this part of Spain and b) You can't get insurance unless the bars are there. But they are nice wrought iron ones!)

snapcracklepop

Don't even get me started on HMO rules!!!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=343741

scorpio_princess

earner wrote:

My neighbour has 24 in his house and 3 in his 12x10' shed (just a shed, not posh, no electricity or proper walls)

The house was up for sale last year and he even advertised it as having people in the shed at £40/week .... because down here people living in sheds and people 6 to a room is normal.

And he's actually one of the better landlords, the house is OK and the people are OK. Around town there are all sorts of poor practices going on

However, it has had a knock on effect in me selling my house as the viewers are looking at the house potential and will be hit by the changes required under this new law as they will have to make the changes to it.

This is shocking! If houses full of people are as widespread as you say they are, how come this hasn't been brought to the council's attention? I mean, it's not going to be difficult for the council to check these houses if they're tipped off about them - if too many people are living under one roof, this would be obvious surely? Though I do realise we're talking about councils here...

clutton_2

the difference between large families in large houses, is that in the case of a fire, they will all be looking out for each other, whereas in a large house full of strangers, the government's assumption (and it has some validity in my view) is that no one will really know who else lives there and some people may be left inside and die.

Fire Exit signs are crucial if you are a stranger in any building (they dont cost much)

Fire doors save lives - there is no arguing about that. Since fire regs no longer require fire escapes to be built at the back of 3 storey builidings, the principle remains that if folks can be safe inside a room with a fire dooor for half an hour before the fire brigade arrives they will be rescued. Under this legislation, doors are not about beauty but about safety.

Wash basins in rooms - nonsense - i absolutely agree - some councils are giving HMO owners 5 years to comply with this nonsense, in the hope that it will be repealed !!!


Earner - i most sincerely hope you have reported these properties to the HMO officer at your local council - i reported a similar one i found recently - you can do it anonymously if necessary.

jennifernil

Do they really require bars on downstairs windows? Surely that is dangerous if there was a fire?