Houses In Multiple Occupation (HMO) Licensing

Taking care of you and your tenants

The purpose of licensing, especially for HMOs, is to ensure that residential accommodation within the Private Rented Sector (PRS) is safe, well managed and of good quality with a particular focus on safety.
 

What is an HMO?

A House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) is any residential property occupied by three or more people sharing facilities like a bathroom and/or kitchen who form two or more ‘households’.
 

What is meant by the term ‘Household’?

A household is either a single person or members of the same family who live together. A family includes people who are:

• Married couples or couples living together as married (including people in same-sex relationships)
• Relatives or half-relatives e.g. grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, nieces, cousins
• Step-parents and step-children, but not step-siblings unless the connecting step-parent is also resident
• Foster parents and foster children

Some domestic staff would be included in the household if they are living in the house as a result of the terms of their contract e.g. an adult carer and up to three people receiving care are a single household.
 

Types of licence

Mandatory licence for large HMOs

This applies Nationwide for HMOs where there are 5 or more occupants in a property and the tenants comprise of 2 or more households. This means single-storey flats or 2 storey maisonettes need a mandatory licence if they are let to 5 or more people who form more than 1 household. There is, however, an exception for purpose-built flats situated in a block of 3 or more self-contained flats. Recent mandatory licensing (Oct 2018) now prescribes National minimum sizes for any rooms which are used as sleeping accommodation and landlords are required to adhere to council refuse schemes.

Additional licence

When a council imposes a policy requiring other sizes of HMOs to also be licenced. For example, a council can bring in additional licensing requiring all HMOs to be licenced.
 

Selective licence

This is at the discretion of the borough and can affect all rental properties regardless of size, number of storeys, or number of occupants. For example, a council can instigate compulsory licensing of all residential rental properties within a street, ward or the whole borough.

Before granting a licence, the local authority must be satisfied that the owner and any managing agent of the property are fit and proper to hold a licence and that the property meets required physical standards. If you are unsure whether your property requires a licence, please contact the local council directly to obtain clarification, ideally in writing.

A licence will normally be granted where…

• Appropriate fire safety measures are in place such as smoke detectors, extinguishers etc
• Annual gas safety checks are up-to-date
• The electrical wiring and appliances have been checked and certified as safe every five years
• The property is not overcrowded
• There are adequate cooking and washing facilities
• Communal and shared areas are kept clean and in good repair
• There are appropriate refuse storage and disposal facilities

Once granted the licence must be clearly displayed within the communal areas along with the name, address and telephone number of the licensee or property manager of the premises. A copy of the current gas safety certificate must also be on display.
 

Does your property require a licence?

If you are not sure whether it needs to be licensed then contact the local borough council in question – often their website contains the relevant information.

Can you evict a tenant to avoid licensing?

No. Landlords are not allowed to evict existing tenants in order to avoid licensing. Any attempt to get a tenant out of a property that should be licensed but isn’t may be considered a crime under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and the landlord or anyone else involved may be prosecuted. The Deregulation Act 2015 has also changed the law so a valid notice cannot be served to end a tenancy if the property should be licenced but isn’t currently.

LICENSING REQUIREMENTS

What will the council take into account when deciding whether or not to grant a licence?

• The suitability of the HMO for the number of occupiers
• The suitability of the facilities within the HMO, such as toilets, bathrooms and cooking facilities
• The suitability of the landlord and/or the managing agent to manage the HMO (this is called the “fit and proper” test)
• The general suitability of existing management arrangements of the property

The council also has to carry out a Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) risk assessment on an HMO within 5 years of receiving a licence application.  If the inspector finds any unacceptable risks during the assessment then the landlord will be instructed to carry out works to eliminate them. The landlord must also notify the council if they plan to make changes to an HMO (structural or decorative), if the tenants make changes to the property, or if the tenants’ circumstances change (e.g. they have a child).

The council must ensure that a licenced HMO is not overcrowded and has suitable shared amenities and facilities for the number of persons occupying it. If there are too many people living in the HMO at the time the licence is granted, the landlord must take reasonable steps to reduce the number of occupiers to the permitted number. Existing tenants will not normally be evicted. Instead, when they move out, it will be an offence for the landlord to allow new tenants to move in if that would bring the total number of occupiers above the maximum number allowed.

Minimum sleeping room sizes for Mandatory HMOs

As of 1st October 2018, local authorities will impose minimum room sizes for any rooms used as sleeping accommodation.

The minimum standards applicable nationwide are:

• 64 m² for one child under 10 years of age
• 51 m² for one person over 10 years of age
• 22 m² for two people over 10 years of age

Any part of a room where the ceiling height is less than 1.5m is not considered as usable floor space.  Minimum sleeping room sizes will apply to new mandatory HMO licence applications. In due course, all existing licences will also have to comply with these standards. Councils can also apply larger room size standards within their borough, but cannot set a standard lower than the above nationwide standards.