Please help with confusion over Building Regs and HMOs

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9:54 AM, 24th October 2018, About 6 years ago 22

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I so need some help as I just cannot Lose anymore money on professional services to be told different things by different people. I feel permanently anxious as my husband recently died and left me to manage a small portfolio which has untold problems which is causing me much stress.

One big problem I’ve asked about before but I’m just getting nowhere.

I have a 4 story building with 8 self contained studios above a hair salon. Checked paperwork and when husband bought them he reconfigured from 7 flats to 8 and there are no certificates from previous owner or him.

For them not to be deemed as HMOs I need to prove that they comply to 1991 Building Regulations or if they don’t, I can make them comply.

I’ve employed 2 different private building control firms to do an appraisal of the building plus sought opinion from Property118, printed off LACORS so I feel I’m quite equipped knowledge wise, but I feel like I’m going around in circles.

One Building Control person said doors should be 30 min separation and ceilings and walls 60, but doesn’t mention floors; the other Building control company says all have to be 60 mins. One mentions lobbies required in individual studios, the other doesn’t and so it go’s on.

What do I do? Which do I go by? This is all costly stuff and will require me to empty my flats (lost rent) and I cannot get it wrong. What if I do all this and then when I come to get Hackney Building Control to sign off, they may say different again.

I feel overwhelmed. This is just one property from the portfolio and I would say that over half have got problems to sort so you can imagine the stress it’s causing.

Please could someone try to help me please with what I should do.

Thank you.

Sharron

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reader

17:43 PM, 29th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Dear Sharron,
We are making our legal position regarding non 1991 approved conversions difficult for ourselves through a lack of understanding of the NATIONAL licensing system which I think has not changed for the properties described below.
My understanding is:
1. We have to comply with Housing Health and Safety Rating System assessments (incl fire etc..) If you are a non licensed premises that is the extent of your obligations.
2 You might have various contractual obligations via leases etc.

So do the new NATIONAL regs apply to what is known as S257 conversions? Well here is the actual wording from the explanation section of the Statutory Instrument that created the recent changes. I hope you will be relieved at what Parliament says it intended:
"This Order prescribes a description of a house in multiple occupation (“HMO”) to which Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004 (“the Act”) applies. Under section 61(1) of the Act every HMO to which Part 2 of the Act applies must be licensed unless it is subject to either a temporary exemption notice under section 62 of the Act or an interim or final management order under Chapter 1 of Part 4 of the Act.

The Order applies to HMOs in England but does not apply to converted blocks of flats, to which section 257 of the Act applies. These are buildings that have been converted into and consist of self-contained flats where the building work undertaken in connection with the conversion did not comply with the appropriate building standards and still does not comply with them, and less than two-thirds of the self-contained flats are owner-occupied."

That wording is taken directly from the explanatory note to the Order 2018 number 221 entitled "The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018". Why however that was not enacted within the Order I have no idea. However the internet has thrown up a wounderful link from the relevant government office together with what would appear to be the direct line to the Ministers Office:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/221/pdfs/uksiem_20180221_en.pdf will give you 5 pages of background information and a helpline as follows:
" 13. Contact
13.1 Laurence Morton at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government,
(telephone: 0303 44 46765 or Laurence.Morton@communities.gsi.gov.uk)
Or
Cynthia Brathwaite at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government,
(telephone: 0303 44 42402 or cynthia.brathwaite@communities.gsi.gov.uk)
can answer any queries regarding the instrument. "

I trust Laurence or Cynthia know the ins and outs because it is quite clear< at least to my level of understanding' that S257 properties do not require to comply with the new licensing system.

Now ask yourself what is a S257 property? The straightforward answer is it is a property where all the facilities are to be found enclosed behind the front door of the particular letting unit and the conversion does not comply with 1991 building regs. I am aware the courts have struggled with that definition but it is the safest mostconservative one and the one housing officers are likely to use.

Good luck with your research Sharron.

There are many other issues surrounding safety of such conversions but S257 and the new NATIONAL licensing schemes are a non starter. There are of course LOCAL licensing schemes that may impact on your property.

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Sjp

8:19 AM, 30th October 2018, About 6 years ago

Reply to the comment left by at 29/10/2018 - 17:43
Thank you Reader. I understand now ie under national licence scheme this does not apply to my Hackney property however after a consultation with The London Licencing .org and an anonymous conversation with Hackney Council, my property is definitely a s257 HMO under Hackney’s additional licencing scheme. No way round this now. However Richard from the above company advises my to get the licence, get the basic required fire safety stuff done to comply and then this complies for HMOpurposes which is simpler than going back to 1991 Building Regs which will require a huge costly revamp of the whole building in access of what’s required for HMO licence.

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