Scotland- letting HMO- differences from E&W?

[delb0y]

Hi folks

Just wanted to hear from ppl in scotland who are letting out their house as a HMO.. I have read all the conditons and got all the forms .. i dont understand why in england you can let out each room and in scotland u have to obtain a hmo licence

I have a 4 bedroom house further two rooms which can also be used as bedrooms making it 6 bedrooms living room, kitchen and 3 bathrooms.. by renting it out to one family im not making enough money.. and i was thinking of converting it to a hmo

any help and advice greatly appreciated


del

[delb0y]

anyone??? :confused:

[MrShed]

No answer I'm afraid....but you need HMO licencing in England too, just depends how many bedrooms!

[Jonboy]

hmo licensing is on it's way for us too boys, starting january 2006, cant wait :( :(

[Patois]

Licensing starts 6 April 2006

HMO's with:
5 or more tenants (comprising 2 or more households) with 3 or more storeys will be licensable - it's nothing to do with bedroom numbers

There will be conditions set by each Local Housing Authority and new Management Regs (see previous link on this forum)

[mike black]

I own a tenement flat.It has 4 rooms (2 large 2 small) kitchen and bathroom.It is licenced for 6 tenants.Getting the licence involved quite a bit of work but was fairly straightforward and worth the effort.If you want to know if a licence will be required in your case ask the council.Its not worth taking the risk of running without one.

[Sandi]

The first expense you will incur will be the cost of an HMO licence which differs for each council, in Edinburgh it is about £570 but even that isn't written in stone as they are staggering the renewals dates for licences by district and the costs reflect this.

Likely other costs are:

Providing smoke detectors in each room and having them all interlinked
Changing doors to fire doors and installing intumescent seals
provideing fire fighting equipment

I reckon the cost of upgrades will be about £5,000. There a number of companies which will give you a free quote and I understand HMO Scotland to be the best although I organised all the work for mine myself.

You will also have to give the neighbours an opportunity to complain and this could mean a trip to the licensing committee (which is not a pleasant experience).

Having said all that I am getting an extra £300pcm and now that everything is done feel it was the right thing to do.

[delb0y]

in glasgow does anyone know whats the requirements? ie i may have three ppl looking to share a house and im not sure if i wil need a hmo licence for this .. ? just phoned the council and they cant tell me someones phoning me back 2morw

thanks

[charger]

Why don't you try www.hmosolutions.co.uk ??

When I enquired on this website few months back about hmo I had very good answers, but have to say i could find out even better solutions by asking question to this people ...
Just an idea .
Hmo is hassle in the begininng, but once you are sorted you will enjoy it more and more, and moreover you sleep better at night.

[Sandi]

If as I assume the three people are unrelated then you will require a HMO licence, I know when I was getting my licence in Edinburgh that the only words of condolency that any one could give me were "At least it isn't in Glasgow were a licence costs £1,500". I don't know if this up to date though. If I were you I would rent to a family take the loss and hope rates go down. I intend to get out of licensing at the earliest opportunity.