Council Visit

[houselet]

I rented my property out on a sigle room by room basis to students. I had been in and out of the property clearing it up. My neighbours garden have a huge amount of brambles that have been overgrowing, look an eyesore and have casued fencing on the righthand side to collapse and never be put back up again due to the bramble bushes. I called the council environemental health asking them to have a look and prhaps contact my neighbour to cut down the bushes. The council arrived at my rented property, i took him into the garden, he told me the fencing was my business and that I would have to check the deeds as to who the fencing issue belonged to and that he would write the neigbour a letter to cut down the brambles, but as it was private property there was nothing he could do. He then went to proceed about my property itself, how many people lived there, is it rented on a single room to room basis or headed tenncy. I told him single, he then went on to investigate the property saying he was going to require a list of things that needed to be shown, gas cert/elect certs, the doors would need to be firedoors etc etc, can he have done this and what business is it of his?? he says hes going to write a letter to me in 10 days. In all the years of renting I have never had a council person visit I only wanted to complain about the bushes and have my property investigated...What do I do??

[Grampa]

Its because you have a HMO

[Melboy]

What do I do??

Newbie......The tenant occupation rules governing Houses of Multple Occupation ( HMO's )are governed by a strict criteria on how they are occupied and the local council have every right to question how you are operating your house let in this particular case.

So to answer your question you must look up the rules governing HMO's and abide by those rules because there could be heavy fines coming your way if you do not adhere to the HMO regulations.

Mel.

[Grampa]

The easiest and (maybe) the cheapest option is to give notice to all your tenants and inform the council that you were unaware of the HMO regulations (they know that anyway) and the property will no longer be a HMO from xxxxxxxxx. Then rent the property as a family home.

Otherwise you will need to abide by all the regulations. But there are differant levels of HMO'S and with some there is not a huge amount of changes that need to be made to a property.

[houselet]

mmm, this really is not an option, with a massive influx of students this year ive given it to students, im hoping it wont be many changes firedoors/firealarm connected to the mains and proof of gas/elect certs that can be done, im hoping he isnt going to give me a huge list I dont any surprises

[Carryon Regardless]

...and double boarding ceilings for extra fire rating, so I believe.

Would it be feasible to give one contract and allow to sub let ??

Far from ideal and open to abuse but I am guessing that as you are you run risk of aggro from Mr Council Man.

I've kept away from HMO so I'm certainly no expert.

[Grampa]

It is not unknown for some councils to not know the in and outs of the HMO rules and your council may be incorrect with the amount of work to be done. Why dont you call a couple of other councils outside your area for a second opinion. Ask to speak to the HMO officer and explain you are thinking or renting a property out to students give details of your property. (you dont have to tell him your name or where it is) and ask what changes need to be made to the property to comply. This should give you a starting point.

Also call a letting agent who deals with student lets and ask their opinion, though dont take that infomation as gospel on its own.

[houselet]

I will look into it, certainly a lesson learnt here, never tell the council more info than they need to know, dont get them involved in your business, they are not on your side

[Jas@FiveTrees]

The local authority which I had an issue with had the following 'basic' rules for which the HMO licence will apply..

It applies to all HMOs which satisfy the following conditions:

• The HMO, or any part of it, comprises two or more storeys
• It is occupied by four or more people
• It is occupied by people living in two or more households

I'm not sure if this is a universal approach or whether all conditions have to be met (I'm sure there should be details on your local authroity website)

The landlord in question reduced the number of individual room lets to 3 but then obviously lost the rent on two rooms. He then subsequently started letting the house to a family (one household) as it didnt make sense financially.

Once the list of works comes from the council, its pretty likely that your decision will be a lot easier.

Best of luck