HMO licence

[mark]

Morning everyone, I just wanted to check that I’m reading this right.

We’ve just bought a 3 bed property in Hyndburn and will be renting it out to 4 people (the front room will make the 4th) bedroom.

We then go to look at the requirement for getting a HMO licence and come across this;

A house of multiple occupation requires a licence by law when:

• it is three or more storeys high AND
• have five or more people in more than one household AND
• share amenities such as bathrooms, toilets and cooking facilities.

so I’m reading this and thinking that we don’t need a license because we’re only having 4 people in. Am I right? I thought having 4 people from different households would have required a licence or are all areas different?

[Julia Urquhart]

Depends on your Local Authority - the rules you have quoted are the national ones but different LAs have different criteria and can choose to make smaller properties licensable.

Also...even if it is not licensable it is still an HMO so I would look at the requirements and be sure your is up to spec with regards to fire doors, smoke alarms etc.