Please note due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, Public Protection will need to prioritise its work. Therefore, unfortunately some areas of the service will be operating at a reduced capacity.
Public Protection officers will endeavour to respond to your submissions as soon as possible.
A HMO is a house or flat that is occupied by:
- three or more people who form two or more households
- the occupiers share or lack facilities such as the kitchen, bathrooms and WC's.
This includes, for example:
- shared houses
- houses containing bedsits
- combination of bedsits
- self-contained flats where facilities are shared.
Properties converted entirely into self-contained flats which do not meet the standards of the 1991 Building Regulations with at least one third of those flats occupied on short term tenancies are also HMO's.
Am I classed as one household or more?
A family living together in a property is classed as a single household, family relatives include:
- au-pair
- parents
- grandparents
- children
- stepchildren
- grandchildren
- brothers
- sisters
- uncles
- aunts
- nephews
- nieces
- cousins
- a relationship of the half-blood shall be treated as a relationship of the whole blood.
However, if three friends live together that would be considered as three households. If a couple share with a third person then that would consist of two households.
COVID -19 guidance
Housing Act 2004
The Housing, Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), licensing requirements and management regulations are used collectively when assessing and undertaking action relating to HMO's.
Households - S.258 Housing Act 2004.
Last updated: 19/03/2021 11:30
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