HMO licence questions under caution?

Reply to the comment left by David at 18/02/2023 - 10:40
All I can tell you is when I was an HMO licensing enforcement officer at Blackpool it wasn't policy to prosecute someone who had successfully applied for their licence. It does not preclude them fro doing so. Of course Bath msy have a different enforcement policy.

There's only one way to fi d out. It's ask them. Not in any great rush though rhc clock is ticking down. On my first day at Blackpool they gave me three files to prepare for prosecution. Two there wasn't enough evidence. The third, they got the fire service to close it down, 7 months prior
So that was dead as well.

It's very easy to lose money in this business by instructing professional professionals to do something you can do yourself. Yes Sarah should get a solicitor if she gets a summons, but that's not yet. Now is to determine the lie of the land.

Reply to the comment left by David at 18/02/2023 - 10:40
David

Please correct me if I'm wrong but part 2 of the housing act 2004 is 3 storey properties ,(not blocks of flats)with ,5 or more occupiers at least two unrelated. This is mandatory licensing. Part 3 is selective licensing all HMO,'in designated areas

Trying to be helpful, the OP has been told planning permission won't be granted, and maybe it won't, but she might win on appeal. Never take a council officer's statement that PP won't be granted at face value. Most applications do succeed, and many that are refused and go to appeal succeed there.

I must say I am very glad I'm not the OP. What a nightmare.

@David Houghton - I agree, the removal of s21 could well make this a classic Catch 22 situation. And there might be others. May I suggest we debate this either in this thread or another, because if that is right we ought to bring it to the attention of the Department for Levelling Up. They do sometimes listen, I put in a submission to the recent consultation which was specifically cited in the Select Committee's report, and my submission was included with the report.

Reply to the comment left by Michael Crofts at 19/02/2023 - 19:09
Yes, the planning department won't like housing officers giving planning advice. She would still have to pay out for a planning app which she doesn't really want. Much better to speak to the planning department, in due course. Get their view, and agree to remedy the problem. If you build a wall without planning permission they are happy if you just agree to take it back down. They tend to be less keen for litigation than Hmo licensing that like to make a point in

Reply to the comment left by Michael Crofts at 19/02/2023 - 19:09
Yes sure.
Is the consultations still open?

Reply to the comment left by David Houghton at 19/02/2023 - 19:33
No, the consultation is not still open (https://committees.parliament.uk/work/6862/reforming-the-private-rented-sector/).

But I think a letter to the Select Committee would still be worthwhile. Here's the relevant information:

All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Levelling Up, Housing
and Communities Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The
telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6930; the Committee’s email
address is luhccom@parliament.uk.

I do not have time to deal with this myself. My wife and I are focussing on our exit strategy from the PRS, and other business matters. I still monitor discussions such as this but I no longer expend the entire days that my previous attempts to drum some sense into the legislators used to consume. We just want out.

Reply to the comment left by David Houghton at 19/02/2023 - 17:51
No, the Housing Act 2004 Pt2 s56 allows local authorities to designate an area for Additional HMO Licensing if its a 3 or 4 person HMO with 2 or more households.

Mandatory HMO licensing hasn't required the property to be 3 stories since 2018.

Selective Licensing under Part 3 has nothing to do with HMOs and is for the licensing of single household properties.

Reply to the comment left by David at 20/02/2023 - 10:31
I think you are getting your terms confused there.
1)Sarah has a single dwelling
2)it's occupied by 3 people.
3) They are not all related so it's 2 households
4)Bath has selective licensing
5) it's not part 2 because
I) irs it 5 people and ii) is a single storey dwellings
6) if it's not part 2 and it's licence able it's part 3

All Sarah had to do is to tell the Couple who rented her 2 bed flat that they cannot bring in a friend, and charge him/her any rent to stay on as a sub-tenant, and since the couple are willing to let go their friend staying with them, so why dive into a deeper end when all she needs is to do is to serve the couple a Notice that they cannot bring in a friend to stay as a tenant and charge him any rent.
1. Is the original AST in the couple's Joint name only.
2. Is there any mention of their friend on the AST
3. When their friend moved in did you increase your rent? As long as your rent did not increase because of this additional person then you have not broken any rules or made it into an HMO.
4. You now need to serve the couple a Notice to either leave the flat or get rid of their friend as you are not willing to risk the Couple inadvertently converting this flat into an HMO.
5. It will save you from these sharks, and planning requirements.
6. Who actually pays the bills, if the couple pays all the bills and the council tax, then it cannot be an HMO as you did not let it as an HMO.

Many tenants do illegal sub-let, not knowing they can put landlords into difficult situation, yours sound similar situation,

Reply to the comment left by David Houghton at 20/02/2023 - 10:42
David, I've explained exactly why you're wrong, but you seem to refuse to accept it or to look up any of it for yourself. I am going to bow out of this thread now.