HMO for Hsg. Standards but not for Planning?

[shanks001]

I have large house which was converted by a previous owner approx 7 yrs ago, to have 6 self contained units.The house under housing standards regulations has been classed as a category F HMO, However under planning regs they refuse to accept that. The house has a communal front door hallways and corridors, also the property has only one service for each of the electric, water and gas. I was under the impression that it is an HMO and under housing standards it seems to be the case, but not under planning. Two departments within the same body but each of them giving different opinions, if they cant agree what chance for the rest of us. If anyone has had similar experience or can offer some advice, it would be great to hear your views.

[susan 2]

Shanks - I do not know if this will help you at all, but here is a true story. Twenty years ago I applied to convert a large house into five self contained units, each with their own bathroom and kitchen. This was turned down. I then asked if I could put in the extra bathrooms etc. Oh yes they said, provided Building regs are happy. Oh and by the way you will have to do full fire regs. So this I did. However the way they made me do the fire regs meant that I ended up with five self contained flats! When I pointed this out to the planning and building reg officers their answers were as follows. "Oh don't worry about that, you have done everything we asked of you, and they are very nice flats!" Since then I have twice had inspections for fire regulations and nobody has said anything about the planning side. So I went and did exactly the same on my other two houses. I think it just depends on the officer at the time and whether he is in a good mood! Best of luck.

[caroline7758]

You should be aware that there are new regulations coming in this year with regard to licensing of HMO's. Not sure of the details, but they should be on the ODPM website.