Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO's)

In this section

  1. What is a HMO?
  2. Mandatory Licensing
  3. HMO Standards
  4. Fire Safety for HMO's
  5. Fees and charges
  6. Applying for a HMO Licence
  7. Planning Rules for HMO's
  8. HMO Enforcement
  9. HMO Register
  10. Report an Unlicensed HMO
  11. Reporting a disrepair in HMO
  12. Varying a HMO license
  13. Buying and selling a HMO
  14. Revoking a HMO licence
  15. FAQ's - houses in multiple occupation

What is a HMO?

A house or a flat is a House in Multiple Occupancy if:

  • Occupants share basic amenities for example a toilet, bathroom and kitchen.
  • There are three or more people living in the property.
  • There are two or more households (at least one person is not related to any other person who lives in the property).

To be classed as a HMO, a building or part of, must fall into one of these categories:

  • A building or flat in which more than one household shares a basic amenity such as a bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities. This is known as the 'standard test' or the 'self-contained flat test'. 
  • A building that has been converted and does not entirely comprise of self-contained flats. This is known as the 'converted building test'.
  • A building that is declared a HMO by the local authority.
  • A converted block of flats where the standard of the conversion does not meet the relevant building standards and fewer than two-thirds of the flats are owner-occupied

If you and your family live in the property as owner occupiers, you are able to have up to two lodgers without the property being considered a HMO.

Tenants on a joint tenancy agreement does not cause them to be related to each other, a house rented to three or more students on a joint tenancy agreement will therefore be a HMO.

Section 257 House in multiple occupation

A S257 HMO is a building which has been converted, or part converted, into self-contained flats that did not comply with the appropriate building standards and still does not comply with those standards, and less than two-thirds of the self-contained flats are owner occupied.

Buildings converted into self-contained flats will generally not be S257 HMOs, provided that they were converted in accordance, or now comply, with the appropriate building standards required at the time of the conversion.

The appropriate building standards, as a minimum, will be the 1991 Building Regulations.

Non Licensed HMOs

A non-licensable HMO is a property with three or four occupants from two or more households who re sharing facilities e.g. bathroom and kitchen. It will still be a HMO but would not require a licence.

Owners/ landlords of non-licensable HMOs are still expected to follow:

  • Amenity standards (see section 3)
  • Fire safety regulations (see section 4)