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New Rules For Small Rooms & HMO's In October

New Rules For Small Rooms & HMO's In October

New legislation has just passed into law extending Mandatory HMO Licensing to all dwellings with 5 individuals from 2 or more families from October and, along with that, new rules restricting the use of smaller rooms  in any licensed HMOs have been included in spite of our evidence that this will increase homelessness without any positive benefits.

The new law was passed on 23rd May and comes into force on 1st October. In our plea to local MP"s back in March we argued "THERE CAN BE ABSOLUTELY NO DOUBT THAT THIS LEGISLATION WILL REDUCE THE SUPPLY AND MAKE IT HARDER FOR SINGLE PEOPLE ON LOW INCOMES TO FIND HOMES. HOW CAN IT NOT INCREASE HOMELESSNESS?  " and quoted numerous tribunal judges who believed the legal interpretation of the 1985 act on which the new small room regulation is based was flawed.

Unfortunately, we seem to have suffered from the revolving door which accompanies junior ministerial posts in government (having had 15 Housing Ministers in 20 years) The minister concerned had only been in post for 1 day  when he did so and he was covering for another minister who had family health problems - so we fear that this lacked the level of scrutiny we expect from elected officials.

In her letter of response to Portsmouth North MP, Penny Mordaunt on the questions raised by the PDPLA, Mrs Heather Wheeler MP stated, "By legislating to introduce minimum sleeping room sizes under HMO licensing, the Government is not increasing standards with HMO licensing it is merely clarifying overcrowding standards that already apply"  - this is the misinterpretation of the 1985 act referred to above, which did NOT create a legal minimum room size.  She goes on to say, "The reforms will be beneficial to tenants, including families as they will lead to an improvement in the management and conditions of HMOs". Earlier she had said, "Accommodation with smaller rooms are routinely being used as HMOs. It is not unusual to see overcrowding, safety issues and poor conditions" and this was the core of our argument - we have been unable to find any evidence (and ministers have been unable to provide any) that that the use of rooms under the new threshold presents any risk to the occupants. These rooms may not be ideal but where they exist, leaving them empty makes no sense. One of PCCs own, usually strict, officers inspected a room well below the threshold recently and congratulated the landlord on a fine property. The student occupants of the small room are very happy and coming back for another year.

Our response to both Ms. Mordaunt and Mrs. Wheeler, from our own Tony Athill, reads as follows:

Tonyheadshot"Here at the PDPLA we are at the sharp end of the housing crisis, with social housing reduced from 20%+ to <10% of the total and home ownership shrinking, the PRS is left to pick up the pieces in a broken housing market and we see weekly requests from local authorities, charities and other agencies desperate for help housing their clients. Our members do what they can, but for the vast majority housing the most vulnerable who are on benefits is just not a viable business model, even before they face the challenges of delayed benefits payments and tenants who need more help 'staying in the system" than the authorities provide.

 Overcrowding may be an issue in some parts of the country though we have not seen any evidence locally that room size is a factor in these cases or that limiting them will materially affect those cases where overcrowding does exist. What we do know is that under Additional Licensing, Portsmouth City Council have licensed nearly 3,000 HMO"s and many of those have at least 1 room that is around 6 sq. m. All of these have been inspected and, when taking communal space into account, assessed as being suitable for habitation.

I note that David Smith, the Residential Landlords Association Solicitor and Policy Director has recently written to Anne Frost, Deputy Director at MHCLG stating that the impact assessment into these changes is fundamentally flawed being "predicated on the inaccurate statement that rooms under 6.51 sq. m are unlawful." There is no "inconsistency of application of this minimum by the courts" as the Minister suggests, the courts are simply reading the 1985 act sensibly and as was intended. He articulates the legal argument and potential justification for a Judicial review better than I can. See https://news.rla.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HMO-licensing.pdf 

We can provide evidence as to the impact that is not addressed in the MHCLG assessment. Application of the new rules will remove at least 200 rooms from the market here and of course, these are the most affordable in the city and without them, many of their currently happy tenants will be forced either into the arms of the local authorities, criminal landlords operating below the radar or onto the street. If this situation is mirrored across the country, the homeless problem is going to get much worse."

So in summary, we have lost the room size battle. The new regulations come in on October 1st but there are "transitional arrangements". The new licence condition will only apply in respect of the first or renewed HMO licence granted on or after 1 October. If already licensed you will have the time until expiry to enlarge the room or take it out of use. Also PCC will be able to allow licence holders up to 18 months to ensure their HMOs comply with the new standards.  Then any licensed HMO will need all single occupant sleeping rooms to be greater than 6.51sq m (70 sq. ft) and two occupant rooms to be over 10.22 sq m.  If the occupant is under 10 the minimum floor area is lower. Clever ideas on how to enlarge a small room within a normal building on a postcard to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. please, best suggestion gets a prize.

Our next challenge is to ensure that smaller HMO"s drop out of licensing as we see no evidence to support their inclusion and also, to resist the Portsmouth Planning Committee who who have moved the bar for the creation of new HMOs from 6.51sq m to 7.5sq m.

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