Do you have an HMO without knowing it?

Or do you know you have an HMO and don’t know the rules?

The legal obligations on landlords with HMOs are demanding, rigorously enforced and carry severe penalties.

What is an HMO?

A house in multiple occupation is not simply a larger version of a single-let property, just by having 3 unrelated occupiers you create an HMO. 

Importantly, an HMO can come into existence without the landlord's knowledge, and your ignorance provides almost no protection in law.

The definition of an HMO under the Housing Act 2004 is based on how a property is occupied, not on how the landlord intends it to be occupied or what the tenancy agreement says. 

So, what your tenancy agreement says or whether you are aware of who occupies the property are not relevant facts. To your local authority you could have an HMO without you knowing it, when they inspect and determine whether your rental house is an HMO. 

It simply boils down to, if three or more people from more than one household share facilities, such as a kitchen, a bathroom or toilet, the property is an HMO in law and is covered by strict regulations. 

What’s more, with the changes coming under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA) commencing 1 May local authorities have extended inspection powers and penalties for breach of the HMO regulations increase. They include Rent Repayment Orders (RRO) extending to 24 months and civil penalties for non-compliance rising to £40,000. For serious breaches resulting in death or injury, there are unlimited fines and possible jail sentences.

See Houses in multiple occupation and residential property licensing reform: guidance for local housing authorities - Updated 9 October 2019

The information in this article is provided for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. Landlords and managing agents should seek professional advice tailored to their specific circumstances and consult their local authority and fire and rescue service for property-specific requirements.

Unauthorised occupiers

The most common situation is where you grant a tenancy to a single individual or couple, and the tenant then brings in additional occupiers without telling you. These may be friends, a partner, or paying lodgers. 

If the house now meets the HMO criteria, the property has become an HMO. Councils now have additional powers of inspection under the RRA and can prosecute all parties in the landlord chain for HMO regulation breaches. That means the superior landlord (freeholder / owner), and any sub-let landlords, so called rent-to-rent arrangements.

Rent to rent is where a landlord lets to a company or individual who then sublets a property, usually on a room-by-room basis thereby multiplying the income. The landlord may believe they are dealing with a simple corporate let; in reality their property has been turned into an HMO without their involvement or consent and for which, under the RRA, they are partly responsible.

Increased fire risk

HMOs represent an increased risk of death or injury if there’s a fire. Hence the need for strict regulations. A combination of multiple unrelated tenants, shared kitchens, toilets and bathrooms, perhaps communal corridors, and varying sleeping arrangements mean there’s a fire risk consistently more dangerous than a family home. UK fire statistics show that rates of injury and death in HMOs are significantly higher than in single-occupancy homes. 

The Grenfell Tower disaster of June 2017 was something of a UK watershed in the history of fire prevention regulations for residential high-rise as well as HMOs resulting in an acceleration in law reform. 

The Fire Safety Act 2021, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and the Building Safety Act 2022 have collectively tightened obligations across the entire multi-occupancy residential sector. 

For HMO landlords and property managers, the effect is a compliance framework that is more demanding, and more actively enforced than what existed even five years ago.

This article sets out the basics of what the law requires, the equipment that must be in place, and your ongoing maintenance obligations. This is not a substitute for professional advice for your specific circumstances, but it does provide a practical framework that every responsible HMO landlord and managing agent should understand.

Who Is the “Responsible Person”?

The law has introduced the concept of the “responsible person”. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which is the primary instrument governing fire safety in the common areas of HMOs and other multi-occupancy buildings in England and Wales, every such property must have a designated responsible person. 

In most cases, that will be the landlord. But when a managing agent has been appointed and given day-to-day operational control over the property, the agent may also carry this status or alternatively the responsibility may be a shared one. 

Whoever can be identified as the responsible person carries direct personal liability, a very serious consideration should there be death or injury.

But landlords who delegate management to a sublet landlord or a managing agent cannot assume this removes their own exposure to liability. In practice, all parties involved may carry some obligation. The question of who is liable in the event of a breach will depend on the terms of any management agreement and the extent to which control has genuinely been transferred. 

The safer approach for landlords is to ensure that obligations are clearly allocated in writing, and that whoever carries them has the competence and resources to carry them out. 

In Wales, the same legislation applies, but there, a supplementary licensing framework under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 and the requirements of Rent Smart Wales apply. 

HMO regulations

Here are the key pieces of regulation affecting HMO which landlords should at least have a brief understanding of. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, implement and maintain appropriate fire precautions, and keep those precautions under regular review.

‍- The Fire Safety Act 2021 has extended the scope of the 2005 Order to include building structures, external walls, and the entrance doors to individual flats and letting rooms.

‍- The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force on 23 January 2023 and introduced new obligations for responsible persons of room-by-room HMOs around tenant communication, fire door information, and the display of evacuation instructions.

‍- The Housing Act 2004 is the key act governing the HMO licensing requirements and sets conditions that include specific fire safety standards. Mandatory licensing applies to HMOs occupied by five or more persons forming more than one household.

‍- The Building Safety Act 2022 strengthened enforcement powers and created a new regulatory framework for higher-risk buildings. Its main provisions relate to high-rise blocks. Its enforcement principles now directly influence how local authorities and fire and rescue services deal with HMO compliance.

These regulations carry statutory powers; they are not optional guidance. Failure to comply with them can result in revocation of the HMO licence as well as civil penalties and prosecution.

The Fire Risk Assessments

The fire risk assessment (FRA) (Checklist – Template) is the single most important compliance document. For landlords and property managers this is it is a strict legal requirement under Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The purpose of the FRA is to systematically identify every conceivable fire hazard within the property; to evaluate the level of risk those hazards pose to occupants, and to determine what precautions are needed to manage that risk to an acceptable level. 

The FRA must cover common areas, escape routes, the condition of fire separation between rooms, the adequacy of detection systems, the state of fire doors, and any risks from the activities of the occupants.

The FRA must be updated at least annually, or whenever there is a material change to the property. Courts have determined that the assessment must be “suitable and sufficient” and ideally compliant with the British Standard BS 9792:2025.  

A professional independent assessment for an HMO typically costs in the region of £200 to £450 depending on complexity. This is advisable to act as a benchmark which may be followed up in future by the landlord or managing agent themselves. 

If you manage smaller lower risk HMOs you may feel confident in conducting your own risk assessment, but for larger HMOs using an independent assessor is strongly advisable at least in the first instance. 

Keep all written records of risk assessments, year by year and actions taken in response to it, as these will be the first documents an inspector will request.

Fire Detection and Alarm Systems

The grade and category of fire detection system required in an HMO will depend on the size, layout, and risk profile of the property, ideally determined by a professional fire risk assessment. Your local authority housing officers and/or fire officer may also advise.

The British Standard is BS 5839 Part 6, classifies systems by grade (A through F, reflecting the power source and level of integration) and category (LD1 through LD3, reflecting the extent of detection coverage).

For smaller, lower-risk HMOs of up to three storeys, a Grade D system which comprises mains-powered, interlinked smoke alarms in corridors and hallways, with a heat detector in the kitchen is typically the minimum. 

For larger, more complex HMO properties, and always required in HMOs where cooking facilities are provided within individual letting rooms, a Grade A mains-powered system conforming to the full requirements of BS 5839 is required. 

Bedsit-type HMOs with cooking facilities in rooms always represent a high risk and should always be treated as such. 

In England, Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarms must be installed in every room containing a gas appliance, an oil-fired combustion appliance, or a solid fuel-burning appliance and one on every level of the property in the stair wells. In Wales, equivalent requirements apply under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. 

All smoke and CO alarms must be tested and in working order at the start of each tenancy and should be tested by tenants on a regular basis during the tenancy.

Fire Doors, Escape Routes, and Signage

These below are three important elements consistently cited in enforcement action as inadequately maintained and require ongoing attention:

Fire doors must be fitted to all sleeping rooms and kitchen doors and must be maintained in proper working order. Intumescent strips and smoke seals must be intact, the door must close fully and latch correctly without manual assistance, and a self-closing mechanism must be provided in working order. Ineffective fire doors are the most common cause of enforcement action in HMOs. 

All corridors and passages in common areas - escape routes - must be unobstructed at all times. In a busy shared home this needs active management as bicycles in hallways, stored items on stairwells, and wedged-open fire doors are among common breaches found on inspections. 

Exit doors on escape routes must be openable without a key from the inside. You should make a habit of walking an escape route from the top floor to the street in low-light conditions to make sure escape can be accomplished easily and without a key.

Signage and emergency lighting is another important area subject to inspection. Regulation 9 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 requires fire safety instructions to be prominently displayed throughout the property, especially in all communal areas. Responsible persons should audit their signage regularly and consider photoluminescent materials for key exit routes, signs which remain visible during power failures and in smoke-filled conditions.

See LACORS Fire Safety Guidance https://www.fixfire.co.uk/do-you-comply/lacors

Communicating with your tenants

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 introduced explicit duties in the way landlords must communicate with their tenants – many landlords remain ignorant of this requirement.

All new tenants must be given fire safety information within one month of moving in, ideally sooner. Existing tenants in HMOs must be told, in writing or electronically, the rules they are required to follow and must be repeated every twelve months.

The information must include guidance on fire door discipline, evacuation procedures, how to raise the alarm, and any other relevant instructions specific to the property and repeated if there are any material changes. 

Regular testing and servicing

The ongoing maintenance and testing regime is very important. The frequency of these checks depends on the size and risk category of the HMO. Larger more complex HMOs require the most diligent checks. For example: weekly manual fire alarm tests and visual checks of the system, monthly emergency lighting function tests, quarterly fire door condition checks in room-by-room and bedsit HMOs. Six-monthly servicing of the fire alarm system by a competent engineer. Annual emergency lighting service and fire extinguisher inspection and servicing and a full risk assessment review.

Remember: you cannot delegate these checks to your tenants. 

Also annually, if there is a gas supply and appliances, the gas safety inspection and CO detector tests, as with all rentals, must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer. 

Every five years the electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR), as required under the Electrical Safety Standards (Private Rented Sector) Regulations 2020

HMOs require a considerable amount of management time to ensure that all these safety requirements are met.

Smaller, lower-risk shared houses may require less frequent checks, but the fire risk assessment will specify what is needed. Whatever the schedule, every test, check, and service and corrective action

 must be recorded by way of a written log. This is even more important under the requirements of the RRA.

The penalties for no compliance

Enforcement of fire safety regulations has become much more strictly enforced in rentals and particularly HMOs of all types since Grenfell. Local authority and fire and rescue service audits of purpose-built flats and HMOs increased sharply in 2024–25, and prosecutions of HMO landlords for fire safety failures are among the most common and severe in enforcement.

Civil penalty notices issued by local councils can now reach £40,000 per breach and prosecutions through the courts carry unlimited fines. Other penalties include a prohibition notice preventing the property from being occupied, removal of your HMO licence, an entry on the Rogue Landlord Database, and in the most serious cases — particularly where a fire causes injury or death, imprisonment of up to two years. 

In summary

Fire safety in an HMO is a serious matter not to be taken lightly or neglected. Landlords as well as sub-let landlords and managing agents can be personally liable as a criminal matter for safety regulations breaches.

To maintain an HMO in a safe condition involves management time and a good knowledge of the regulatory requirements – HMO landlords and managing agents must be willing to familiarise themselves with the regulations. Since Grenfell, enforcement has become much more stringent.

All HMO landlords are well advised to have an independent risk assessment carried out by a professional fire consultant and to carry out its recommendations.

[Main image credit: RDNE Stock project]