Basic HMO advice - Newbie

[nickr]

Hi,

Pretty new to this so just wanted some basic advice on HMO, seems to be a lot of information out there and all makes it a bit unclear.

The house I own is a three-storey back-to-back terrace. Four bedrooms, one kitchen, one bathroom. I currently live in the property, along with the joint-owner and two other tenants.

Come summer, we are looking to rent the house, probably to students as the house is in a prominent student area.

So my questions are, will the house fall into HMO? If so, how do I go about getting a HMO licence?

The landlord across the road rents his property to four students and claims that he doesn't need a HMO licence as his tenants are on joint-contracts (of somekind). Not sure whether to believe him or not?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[red40]

Hi,
Come summer, we are looking to rent the house, probably to students as the house is in a prominent student area.

If you are going to rent to more than 2 unrelated students then you may have to apply for planning permission first, from tomorrow planning legislation and HMO's changes.


So my questions are, will the house fall into HMO? If so, how do I go about getting a HMO licence?

Once you rent to more than 2 people in 2 seperate households it becomes a HMO.

If you rent to only 4 students, then you wont need a mandatory HMO licence. If you rent to 5 or more unrelated occupants then it will fall into mandatory licensing, which you will require an application pack from your local council. They will have details and possibly an application form that can be downloaded.

The landlord across the road rents his property to four students and claims that he doesn't need a HMO licence as his tenants are on joint-contracts[/quote]

He is most probably right that he doesn't need a HMO licence if your local council are only operating mandatory licensing.

You should speak to your council to see if they are also running additional licensing and possibly selective licensing.

For your information the tenancy agreement has nothing to do with HMO's anymore, it is the number persons and households that count.