Self-contained studios = HMO?

[MarkusHughes]

i recently bought a house and made each room a self contained studio - there's 10 of them in the house now, and the yield is 10% on it, which is a gd return

would i require an hmo license for this?

what would happen if the council found out? has anyone had any such experiences?

[red40]

Depends on what you class as a studio flat, there seems to be many variations. Are they all self contained, so each has a bathroom and klitchen and they dont share with anybody else.

I take it it was done with full building regs and planning permission was given, before the conversion? If so it should be up to the standards required of such a building.

[Pelican eats pigeon]

You shouldn't if they are properly self-contained, as red40 said.

I really, really hope you have planning permission - if you don't, it will come out sooner or later...

[MarkusHughes]

nope i dont have planning permission

they're all done up to the usualy standards, fire check doors, etc.

[red40]

As much as I would like to respond to your queries markushughes, I cant, for the simple fact is that it appears to me that you should have had planning permission for at least a change of use of the building

Also regardless of what you think its upto the usual standards, again it appears to be a converted building which would also require building control approval and therefore for me to respond to the Housing Act legislation and guidance as requested, would be inappropriate.

Unless I have read your post incorrectly

[Pelican eats pigeon]

Think about it this way - there are going to be problems with either council tax or utilities sooner or later. One or the other will probably lead to the council finding out. How do you plan on sorting things out so that the council tax makes sense?

There will be real, real problems if you try and sell the house (you would probably have to indemnify the purchaser).

If you applied for retrospective planning permission, do you reckon they'd grant it?

[RomansProperties]

HI We have a lot of simular properties which we have either bought from auction already as self contained flats or we have converted houses to make self contained flats.

The ones we bought at auction we needed an insurance policy for the mortgage company to be happy.

The ones we refurbished ourselves, we left a shared kitchen in the property so that we would need to apply for a HMO licence and therefore cover ourselves against needing planning permission.

On yours i would say you wont need a HMO licence if they are no shared facilities.

I take it you pay the council tax and the water rates/elec etc?

[MarkusHughes]

thanks for your reply

yes i pay the council tax and the utilities

are u sure i wont need an hmo license if they are all self contained flats?

[Bel]

If they are flats then they should not need a mandatory licence, but the building is still an HMO unless you have the correct buildings regs approval or you only have 2 or less tenants in the whole building.

As soon as your all your tenants apply to go on the electoral role your property will be flagged up to the council.

[mollysbb]

I agree with red40; your big problem is going to be lack of pp. I applied to convert a large property into 7 self contained studios, which I thought there was plenty of room for and was knocked back. Eventually compromised on 4 flats. (was charged 7 lots of fees though ). The council took a very strict stance on this and when I asked if I could just rent out rooms and make it into an hmo they said I still had to apply for change of use pp, so they get you all ways. At least they do here. Sorry to be negative, but I would be worried in your position. Good luck and keep us updated on the outcome....
Cheers
Molly