If you're a tenant or a neighbour of a House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) flat you'll be interested in how to make sure commercial landords are keeping their flats safe from the risk of fire, upholding minimum space standards and minimising unnecessary noise disputes.
Landords who wish to let a flat to three or more co-habiting adults have a number of obligations placed on them by the goverment which are administered by the council.
- They are reqiured to apply for an HMO license.
- They are also required to apply for the planning department for change of use from dwelling to HMO.
- Altering a flat in order to comply with the HMO license may require a landlord to get a Building Warrant and Completion Certificate.
Landlords must not advertise flats for rent until the HMO license is granted. This is a recurring issue in our street and any evidence of this happening should be reported to the council
3 comments:
The planner I spoke to assured me that ALL HMOs in flats require planning change of use (its only houses with 5 persons or less they exempt)- see page 3 for verification.
The map (bottom link) shows our street is clearly one of the HMO dense areas (10-30%)
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Attachments/Internet/Environment/Planning_and_buildings/Planning/Developmentquality/House_Multi_Occ_01.pdf
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Attachments/Internet/Environment/Planning_and_buildings/Planning/Developmentquality/HMO%20Map.pdf
Here's a interesting Edinburgh Council document comparing Glasgow's quota policy and Edinburgh's equivalent
http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocID=25061
HMOs should also require landlords to keep the OUTSIDE of their flats tidy, NOT sand floors and ensure the flats are kept tidy. At the moment, the Crescent is a mess with overgrow gardens, filthy windows etc.
Post a Comment