no one seems to know if my property is a HMO!!!!!!!!

red40

Its not the dictionary you should be looking at, its the Housing Act 2004, section 258 for the definition of a household and the 2006 Statutory Instrument 373(paragraphs 3 & 4).

clutton_2

as far as 2004 Act is concerned a household is either one person, or a group of related persons.

This Act was brought in partially due to the large number of independent single men and women who died in fires in bedsits. The ethos behind the legislation is that if there is a large family in one private house and there is a fire, every member of that family will know if any other member of that family is/is not standing outside the house, in a safe place, as it burns to the ground. However, in a large house with lots of bedsits, no one tenant will know if everyone tenant is outside or not. Hence the extension of the fire regs - if a building is three storeys high, then the whole house must have at least half hour fire doors, so that residents can stay inside their rooms and still be rescued by the fire brigade within 30 minutes and be saved. If a building is only 2 storeys it is argued that residents can jump out of a first floor window and survive.

Re licensing, this is yet another tax on landlords - John Prescott refused to put a ceiling on license fees as charged by local authorities to provide a license for a landlord to run a HMO - so some councils are charging a huge amount and others are not.

ds1980

well all the doors are fire doors as it used to be a foster home so they hadto have certain regs etc. THe room upstairs you could easily get out of in a fire as the extension leads off the roof.

Its ridiculous all this ill find someone to mortgage me and then not declare it.

thanks for everyone's help

TJ27

I think pcwilkins, red40 and clutton have given some sound advice here.

I've been issuing HMO licences for some time now. You might have a problem if you become licensable and don't declare your HMO to your lender. Councils are required to inform your mortgagee if you apply for a licence, and you are required declare your mortgage on your application form. We check anyway by doing a land registry search. So if you don't declare it you will be found out. Your council will then know that you are a liar and this in turn may count againt you regarding the "fit and proper person" checks.

If you fill this place it sounds like it will almost certainly be licensable, although as others have said at the moment it isn't even an HMO. You either need to use it as a 4 let (still HMO), or else fill it and licence. Be careful, the fines for operating a licensable HMO without a licence are pretty harsh. I don't know what other councils are doing but here we are quadrupling our number of prosecution officers. That gives you a clue as to what we expect to be doing in the near future.

pcwilkins

ds1980 wrote: »

Its ridiculous all this ill find someone to mortgage me and then not declare it.

I really hope you get caught :-)

Peter

clutton_2

""ill find someone to mortgage me and then not declare it."

how arrogant - so one surveyor has told you its a HMO - and you, who clearly know nothing about HMOs - think that you can get another surveyor to say something different ?? get real

like peter - i also hope you get caught - you are being thoroughly irresponsible here.

Guy_Montag

I think the title of the thread should be:

"I've been told I have an HMO, but don't want to admit it"

matto

You may also like to consider cotacting the local council to see whether they have extended the licensing scheme to include additional properties that don't fall under the 5 person 3 storey mandatory licensing requirement.

Tenants living in a HMO that is not licensed but should have been may be able to claim any rent paid back.

barnaby-bear

ds1980 wrote: »

right so basically its "what is a household" now the way i see it they are 1 household although some are not related!! this is confusing! I wouldn't bother to be honest registering it its just proving difficult to get a mortgage!!!!!

grrrrrr the fun we have

If they aren't related or in a relationship then not one household - to avoid shoky landlords just renting to one tenant ... the legislation covers that potential 'loophole'

roses

These HMO rulese are ridiculous. Who wants to convert a family home into a "bedsit" by putting washbasins and firedoors in every room when it is 1 group of friends & 1 tenancy agreement & the owner may want to move back in at some point? There are many people that let out their own house because they have changed jobs & had to move away or they decided to leave the country for a bit to live the dream abroad for awhile!