You will need to know whether or not you’ve an HMO or not. There are some moderately vital penalties. For instance:
- All HMO landlords must adjust to the particular administration rules (and could be prosecuted and fined in the event that they don’t), and
- The property could have to be licensed.
The foundations on HMOs modified in 2006 when the Housing Act 2004 got here into drive, together with a brand new definition. That is set out in section 254 onwards. It’s moderately an extended definition and I’m not going to attempt to summarise it right here (the Housing Act is on-line anyway, so you may go and read it for yourself).
Varieties of HMO and ‘households’
There are numerous forms of HMO (together with completely different guidelines for studios), however as far as rented homes are involved, it is advisable know {that a} property can be an HMO whether it is let to three or extra tenants who kind 2 or extra ‘households’ and who share amenities resembling a kitchen, rest room or bathroom.
A ‘family’ is principally a household unit, which incorporates single {couples}, half-blood family members and step and adopted kids. It additionally contains live-in staff resembling a nanny or au pair, or a carer.
What the act doesn’t say, although, is that it relies on (or is affected by) the kind of tenancy settlement you’ve (or occupation contract in case your property is in Wales).
Landlords who’re letting out properties to a number of single individuals and are making all of them signal the one tenancy settlement within the hope that they may keep away from the HMO guidelines are simply deceiving themselves. If there are three or extra tenants and they’re unrelated, the tenancy is sort of actually an HMO.
So, in case you have tenants coming and going at completely different occasions, it could most likely be much more handy if you happen to gave them their very own tenancy agreement for his or her room and shared use of the frequent elements. Significantly in case your solely cause for having the one tenancy settlement is to keep away from the HMO laws.
Discover out extra
If you wish to discover out extra about HMOs and the regulation regarding them, there’s various info and steerage on my Landlord Law site, (together with a free course).
