Tuesday the 6th of April 2010 saw the controversial Statutory Instrument 653 come into effect. The new law will see landlords required to gain planning permission if they want to let out their House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) to three or more unrelated individuals. The Town and Country Planning Act has created a new planning class for HMOs, designated C4, that now requires landlords to apply for permission to change the use to open a new letting property that is altered from a family home to a shared house.
The legislation is not retrospective and will not affect properties with an existing use. HMOs that already house three or more tenants, will not have to apply for retrospective permission because they already have ‘established’ use from the date new legislation is enforced.
The aim of the legislation is to prevent so-called ‘studentification’ whereby rows of terrace houses in university towns and cities are rented out to students. The Government believes this is a problem, although its own advisers in the Rugg Report said it was not.
Landlord groups have been fighting to prevent the change happening, and David Cameron has tabled an Early Day Motion to get it rescinded. Robert Jordan, former ARLA president, said many agents remain unaware of the changes. He, like the landlord groups, believes that the supply of shared rental accommodation will become restricted, with landlords unwilling to pay the cost of obtaining planning permission with the possibility that they might also have to pay to have their HMOs licensed.
