Landlord licence - 1 person

ChilliBob

Hey guys, 
I hope you can help. My partner has been renting her one bedroom flat for just over five years. As requested she has just obtained a landlord licence, however, this states the *maximum* number of people she can rent to is one. 

Yep, one person, not one couple or something else.

Having lived in the flat with her, and having rented to couples for years it's clearly bonkers. There's space in the bedroom for a double bed, bedside tables, wardrobes etc a nice living area with space for two sofas and a balcony! 

She's trying to challenge this but nodoby is replying. We felt surely this is against human rights go say it can only be one person?! 

If anyone has any experience here that'd be much appreciated, this is really stressing my partner out (not to mention the ESW1 side of things too)
Cheers! 

tacpot12

There are rules about how big a floor area bedrooms have to be before the room can be shared by two people. The figure is 10.22 square metres. How big is the bedroom is question? Is it an odd shape? What did your partner enter on the application for the licence when asked how big the room was?

anselld

What area is it in?  What is the licensing scheme?  What are the local policies on amenity requirements for licensed properties.  It will all be set out in the local licensing rules, probably based on square footage of the room and/or the flat and nothing to do with "human rights".

The process is usually that the Council offer a draft license and you have 14 days to object to any conditions.  Was this not done?

ChilliBob

tacpot12 said:

There are rules about how big a floor area bedrooms have to be before the room can be shared by two people. The figure is 10.22 square metres. How big is the bedroom is question? Is it an odd shape? What did your partner enter on the application for the licence when asked how big the room was?

It's just under that at over 9sqm. However, I thought from reading that was just for HMO? 

ChilliBob

anselld said:

What area is it in?  What is the licensing scheme?  What are the local policies on amenity requirements for licensed properties.  It will all be set out in the local licensing rules, probably based on square footage of the room and/or the flat and nothing to do with "human rights".

The process is usually that the Council offer a draft license and you have 14 days to object to any conditions.  Was this not done?

It's in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. 
It's selective licencing I believe
Objection was made very shortly after the licence was emailed, but no response yet, just trying to understand why they would have chosen that.
Its pretty odd, when we lived there every flat had either a couple or a family of a couple and a baby or toddler 

ChilliBob

Oh and thank you both for your replies  

anselld

ChilliBob said:

anselld said:

What area is it in?  What is the licensing scheme?  What are the local policies on amenity requirements for licensed properties.  It will all be set out in the local licensing rules, probably based on square footage of the room and/or the flat and nothing to do with "human rights".

The process is usually that the Council offer a draft license and you have 14 days to object to any conditions.  Was this not done?

It's in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. 
It's selective licencing I believe
Objection was made very shortly after the licence was emailed, but no response yet, just trying to understand why they would have chosen that.
Its pretty odd, when we lived there every flat had either a couple or a family of a couple and a baby or toddler 

The application form refers to "Private Rented Property Licensing Conditions" which must be complied with and that occupancy is determined based on room sizes.  However I cannot see the document published on their website.
These schemes are designed to "raise standards" and in some cases that means the bar is higher that what is reasonably acceptable by owner occupiers.  The Council do not consider affordability or housing shortage as factors in this.
Suggest she chases the Licensing team to find out what the current position is.  Ultimately she can appeal to First Tier Tribunal if she thinks the condition is unfair but that will probably not be successful if the room is undersize vs the policy and there are no other mitigating factors (extra built in storage for example).

AdrianC

ChilliBob said:
We felt surely this is against human rights go say it can only be one person?! 

Which bit?
https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf

anselld

AdrianC said:

ChilliBob said:
We felt surely this is against human rights go say it can only be one person?! 

Which bit?
https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf

Article 8 presumably.  

.. and there is a fair point... what happens if the OP lets to a single tenant as required by the Authority and the tenant subsequently finds a partner who decides to move in?  The Authority would presumably require the OP to take steps to evict the T or face enforcement action or prosecution for breach of their License.

ChilliBob

anselld said:

AdrianC said:

ChilliBob said:
We felt surely this is against human rights go say it can only be one person?! 

Which bit?
https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf

Article 8 presumably.  

.. and there is a fair point... what happens if the OP lets to a single tenant as required by the Authority and the tenant subsequently finds a partner who decides to move in?  The Authority would presumably require the OP to take steps to evict the T or face enforcement action or prosecution for breach of their License.

Yep, section 8. Basically we just added this bit in when appealing on the off chance it would carry more weight. Its ultimately nonsensical as I like my space but I was comfy there! 

ChilliBob

anselld said:

ChilliBob said:

anselld said:

What area is it in?  What is the licensing scheme?  What are the local policies on amenity requirements for licensed properties.  It will all be set out in the local licensing rules, probably based on square footage of the room and/or the flat and nothing to do with "human rights".

The process is usually that the Council offer a draft license and you have 14 days to object to any conditions.  Was this not done?

It's in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. 
It's selective licencing I believe
Objection was made very shortly after the licence was emailed, but no response yet, just trying to understand why they would have chosen that.
Its pretty odd, when we lived there every flat had either a couple or a family of a couple and a baby or toddler 

The application form refers to "Private Rented Property Licensing Conditions" which must be complied with and that occupancy is determined based on room sizes.  However I cannot see the document published on their website.
These schemes are designed to "raise standards" and in some cases that means the bar is higher that what is reasonably acceptable by owner occupiers.  The Council do not consider affordability or housing shortage as factors in this.
Suggest she chases the Licensing team to find out what the current position is.  Ultimately she can appeal to First Tier Tribunal if she thinks the condition is unfair but that will probably not be successful if the room is undersize vs the policy and there are no other mitigating factors (extra built in storage for example).

Thanks. Yeah I had a good look around but could not find anything either. The room size things we did find on other sites seemed to be related to HMOs from what I could see. But I guess they may just apply the same rules to Selective. 

The irony being if she manages to sell it then I guess whoever buys it can live their with whoever they want! But I guess that makes sense as it's your choice if you own the property