HMO - Who to report to?

[alvinlwh]

Hi all,

 

My partner recently moved out of a 70s terraced house which had been butchered to provide accommodation for a very large number of people. I had been looking up some of the laws regarding HMO and know the LL broke a number of rules, some downright being dangerous. This LL is an a'hole and withheld my partner's deposit, claiming that it was for bills, which we never saw (long story). Since it was only £100, I am going to let him have it, BUT, his house is not a proper HMO, I wanted to report him to the appropriate authorities. Problem is I do not know who to report each of the violations to. So here is a list of the violations:

 

1. Unlicensed HMO - no licence had been applied for the house to be used as a HMO.

   
   

2. Insufficient fire protection - There are no mains powered interlinked fire alarms in the house, no fire doors and insufficient fire proofing in the walls. Nor is there a fire plan.

   
   

3. Overcrowding - It was a 2 bedroom house which had been converted into a 4 bedroom. So there are 4 different tenants, in addition to the LL, his wife and two children. A total of 8 persons. However there is only 1 WC and 1 combined shower room.
   
4. Room size too small - In reference to point 3 above, the room sizes are 6m2 or below.
   
5. Illegal conservatory - The conservatory he had put up does not comply with Permitted Development under the Planning Regulations. No planning application had ever been made for the conservatory.
   
6. Unsafe equipments - The electrical appliances had been installed by the LL himself, with no testing or certification done by a professional on a annual basis. The gas cooker had no CORGI certificate.
   
7. Council tax fraud - It was reported to the local as only occupied by students. However LL and his wife, who live in the same house, works.
   

I hope someone can kindly point me in the right direction to report this LL for each of these violations.

 

Thank you very much!

[pink1]

Hi,

 

"Unlicensed HMO - no licence had been applied for the house to be used as a HMO."

 

Environmental Health at the Council - does not necessarily need one but they'll tell you.

 

Insufficient fire protection - There are no mains powered interlinked fire alarms in the house, no fire doors and insufficient fire proofing in the walls. Nor is there a fire plan

.

 

The fire safety officer in Building Control at the Council.

 

Overcrowding - It was a 2 bedroom house which had been converted into a 4 bedroom. So there are 4 different tenants, in addition to the LL, his wife and two children. A total of 8 persons. However there is only 1 WC and 1 combined shower room.

 

Planning enforcement in the planning department at the Council - you need planning permission for more than 6 unrelated people to live together if they are sharing kitchen and bathroom.

 

Room size too small - In reference to point 3 above, the room sizes are 6m2 or below.

 

Not necessarily a direct breach of any legislation but would be borne in mind by the planners when deciding whether the unauthorised change of use should be allowed to continue.

 

Illegal conservatory - The conservatory he had put up does not comply with Permitted Development under the Planning Regulations. No planning application had ever been made for the conservatory.

 

What make you think this? Was it built before or after October 2008? How was the house occupied when it was built? This is for the planning enforcement officers too though.

 

Unsafe equipments - The electrical appliances had been installed by the LL himself, with no testing or certification done by a professional on a annual basis. The gas cooker had no CORGI certificate.

 

Hmm not as certain about this one. Gas and CORGI is Building Control. Try the Health and Safety team within Environmental Health?

 

Council tax fraud - It was reported to the local as only occupied by students. However LL and his wife, who live in the same house, works.

 

Strangley enough Council Tax (sometimes called "Valuations") at the Council. Get on their website - you should be able to get contact details, or fill in online enquiry forms there.

 

Px

[patrickq1]

18th April 2008

A Bradford company has been fined for failing to licence two of its properties under houses in multiple occupation regulations.

Meridian Property Management and the company’s directors Salim Khan and Zahoor Ahmed were confronted by Jennie Stopford and Nazima Kauser, EHOs for Bradford City Council, after an inspection of the properties in November 2006 found they were unlicensed.

Meridian Property Management was founded by Mr Khan in 1995 and manages a range of flats and multi-roomed detached houses.

Charged with offences under section 72 of the Housing Act 2004, Mr Khan and Mr Ahmed initially pleaded not guilty at two hearings before admitting culpability in November 2007.

The company was fined £1,600 and the two director were fined £1,200. They were also ordered to pay council costs of £1,174.

The council’s private sector housing team said it would pursue all landlords and managing agents who operated an HMO without a licence.

[alvinlwh]

pink1,

 

"Environmental Health at the Council - does not necessarily need one but they'll tell you."

 

The LL do need a HMO licence for the house. If a landlord lives in his property with only 2 other occupants, the property will not be classified as an HMO. However, if the landlord has 3 or more other occupants living in their property, that property becomes an HMO. For these purposes the resident landlord and his family will count as one person.

 

"What make you think this? Was it built before or after October 2008? How was the house occupied when it was built? This is for the planning enforcement officers too though."

 

The conservatory is illegal as it fail on 2 aspect, it is too long (>3000mm) and is not separated from the house by an external quality door, patio door or French doors as per Building Regulations. In fact, there is no door at all. Also, it was built before October 2008, before the current Building Regulation come into force. I did a search on the local council's planning website and there was no applications for the conservatory, ever.

[pink1]

I think there is something about (in Env. Health terms) the number of habitable storeys a building has to have (I'm thinking 3 for some reason) before it needs to be licensed as an HMO. This is different from the planning definition of an HMO relating to number of occupants. As I say, if you can't find an EHO on here, I really would advise you to ask your council and they'll advise you - please post the answer if you do, I'd love to know!

 

Before October 2008 the 3m projection limit to the rear of a semi or terraced house did not exist. That came into effect with the new GPDO on 1st October 2008. The "old rules" stated that you could add up to 70 cubic metres to a house, as long as you were coming no closer to a highway bounding the curtilage, didn't cover more than half the garden etc etc. You need to try not to mix building regs issues (although you're right about the doors) with planning ones... It would be quite unusual for a conservatory on a single dwelling house to need planning permission but this is why I ask how the house was occupied when it was built - an HMO (according to the planning definition) has no pd rights.