Alleged Council Enforcement Officer threatening over the phone?

Why are you licensing this - is additional or selective licensing in place ? This is (as described) a S257 HMO and outside mandatory HMO licensing. As for the listed building matters - id wait for contact from the officer involved- but appears most irregular.

Subscribed and watching with interest.

I think it hinges on getting this person's identification.

Either they are official in which case you go down one channel or they are a prankster/neighbour/busybody in which case they have cost you money by delaying your project in front of lots of witnesses.

I would make a formal written complaint to the Local Planning Council Dept covering all the points you have made. Any Inspector would come from there as it is their responsibility to monitor building works in the council area.
They will tell you if it was an authorised visit by one of their staff or not.

I had an issue when redecorating a ground floor studio flat a few years ago. Basically an interior decorating job. A very threatening council officer who must have been alerted by a neighbour? demanded I apply for retrospective planning for change of use to studio/ bedsit ,it cost about £1000 with the help of a consultant I just couldn’t believe how aggressive this planning officer was.

Sounds like a busybody neighbour just trying it on in a (stoopid) attempt to stop it being an HMO? Maybe there were issues with tenants before and they just see the problem carrying on as a refurb is in progress..
Sounds very odd though - bang off an email to the Council Planning Dept. They should be able to immediately tell you if there was an official visit or not and if it wasn't an official one, be very interested to know more if a fraudster is doing the rounds....

As far as I know any works to a listed building needs consent having owned a couple of listed buildings (planning and conservations departments are two different 'departments' and not joined up) but what concerns me is the indemnity insurance - my information is that you do not alert the people who may take action - the council - that this is happening as it will render the indemnity insurance void. They should have shown ID, any interaction I've had with a council office has always had them show their id first and they are not always pleasant.

I agree it is not an HMO if it is all separate units - if it was an HMO previously there must have been changes made since the license was issued to have self contained units. I assume you have the floor plan for the HMO?

Listed Buildings ( and the officer responsible for that) has nothing to do with Planning. On the facts if this was an officer from the council they were identified as from conservation or historic - not planning or licensing. Assuming the lender made the right checks, planning permission presumably exists. its still unclear why as described this needs a HMO Licence unless its as additional licensing area.

I own a Grade II Listed cottage in Rutland and when we wanted to renew rotted windows we had to apply to the Planning Dept for permission and they sent the Conservation Officer round to check with us what was being done. Turned out when the cottage was renovated with council granted prior to us purchasing the windows weren't correct anyway!
So maybe only in Rutland that Planning and Conservation are in the same dept.

The story does not add up.
So your solicitor said not to buy because he could not find any listed building permission on the property. My understanding is that grade 2 covers both outside and certain internal features. You contacted the council and asked if the previous owners had done prohibited work? They replied (presumably without a site visit) saying that as long as there were no external works it would be fine. (But you don't say who in the council replied.) Did you check with historic england? You took the council's response to mean that the previous owner's work and your planned work would be ok. (Brave)
Where I live the planning department and conservation department are separate but in the case of applications, they are very much coordinated.
So, based upon what you have said I think there is a high risk that you or the previous owner may have undertaken work that may not have been allowed.
That said the person who undertook a site visit was very unprofessional if he did not identify himself and say exactly what would happen. Furthermore, if he did not immediately apply for a court injunction to stop work then that also seems suspicious. And of course, those who walked off without checking that the person was a council official were naive.

I find it strange that the lender, who usually is represented by your solicitor (who would have recommended not to lend) were actually prepared to lend as long as insurance was in place.

The story does not add up.

Reply to the comment left by Bond Housing at 26/01/2021 - 11:33
It is designed for 5 tenants. The Council requires HMO Licence for 5 or more people, regardless of the fact whether they are self contained or not. They are not Block of flats it is a house which is converted into 4 Self Contained Studio Rooms. One Of Studio is larger than others so it can house a couple hence 5 people in 4 studio rooms.