UK Landlord Forum / Life

Id be extremely grateful if someone could help with a query I have relating to HMO licensing of shared freehold properties.

8 years ago I bought the first floor of a terraced house under a shared freehold I.e I own the shared freehold of the first floor and another landlord owns the shared freehold of the ground floor. Both the first and ground floor have been converted to separate flats and are registered under separate addresses i.e. 147a and 147b

I have 2 tenants who rent my first floor flat which comprises 2 bedrooms a shared bathroom, shared kitchen and shared lounge.

Im not entirely sure but I think the ground floor flat is occupied by an unmarried couple.

I have been issued a notice by the Council advising that the property falls under the additional Licensing scheme which requires that any property where 3 or more occupants reside is subject to HMO licensing.

I question whether this is true as my first floor flat consists 2 occupants who share communal facilities.

Should my first floor flat be treated as a separate property as the ground floor?

They have different addresses for all other purposes (council tax, post etc)  however the council seem to be treating the building as one property for their HMO licensing.

The property shares an external front door and there is a door at the bottom of the stairs separating the ground floor from first floor. The property was split into 2 flats sometime in the 90s prior to my ownership of the first floor (albeit without building regulations approval).

Any advice on the above would be much appreciated!

This is gonna sound unhelpful - but it really isn't meant to be...

The only people who can provide you with the help you need are the Council who are treating the building as one property. You getting advice from an Internet forum isn't gonna be helpful to you. What I think I know is that each Council seems to do things differently regarding this kind of legislation and - more importantly - the licensing aspect of it. That's the folk you need to impress your case upon... using the information you've outlined here is the starting point. Personally - I'd be thinking that their own approach to Council Tax is the killer argument - but, of course, I could be proven wrong. The other killer argument I would be citing is a simple one... the Government's own definition of HMO (both the normal variety and the large variety) mean that this condition must be met - "you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants" - one would assume the two flats don't share a toilet, bathroom or kitchen? Therefore the boundaries are clear - you have 2 Tenants, therefore the first condition - "at least 3 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household" - does not apply, and both must apply for it to be an HMO.

See? I said you'd get no help here... but you may have done. What I mean to impress upon you is simple - it's the Council Droids you must persuade... and they are all a little inept. It's why they occupy the positions in life that they do.

Your property meets the first condition if they count the entire thing:

https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/houses-in-multiple-occupation

But fails on the second condition. Once it fails on the second condition it fails on the first condition.

That's my view of The World anyway.

Thankfully I don't get into HMO territory... as you seem unwittingly to have done.