Shaping Safer Homes: Have Your Say on Hounslow’s HMO Licensing Future
The Council wants to continue with its extended licensing for HMOs, so more homes are covered by a licence than just the statutory minimum. We are asking your views on this proposal.
What is a HMO licence?
The Government has prescribed certain types of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) that the council must licence. This is known as Mandatory Licensing and includes properties with five or more persons sharing bathroom and kitchen facilities (S254 HMOs). Flats in Multiple Occupation (FMOs) in large purpose built blocks are not included, neither are conversions into self contained units where the conversion works were completed without the appropriate Building Regulations (S257 HMOs).
Hounslow Council’s proposal
The Council has the discretion to widen mandatory licensing to other types of HMOs, this is known as additional licensing. We introduced a wider scheme in August 2020, which included smaller S254 HMOs which are occupied by three or four persons as well as S257 HMOs which have been subdivided into self contained flats or studios without appropriate building regulation approval.
Our additional licence scheme only lasts until July 2025. We want to extend this additional licence by another five years, this continuation will let us build on the work achieved through the current scheme to improve property conditions and management standards in HMO properties.
This consultation asks you to consider our proposal for an additional five year additional licence and share your views.
Why are we considering a further additional licence?
The private rented sector, including HMOs, is the fastest growing tenure in the borough, private renting increased from housing 23.4% of the population in 2011 to 30.9% in 2021. This sector is also becoming a long-term solution for many of our more vulnerable residents.
During the first four years of the current additional licence, 40% of HMO licence applications received were those covered by our discretionary licence. We were able to achieve substantial improvements to both the additional and mandatory properties by implementing the additional licence but we are aware there are many more properties which would benefit from the continuation of the additional HMO licensing.
The options we considered
These were the options the Council considered:
- Do nothing and let the current additional HMO licensing scheme come to an end in July 2025 - this would create inequality in the protections offered to tenants in HMOs and would be a barrier to improving HMOs.
- Limit the additional licensing to certain areas – HMOs are distributed across the borough and we want to provide a consistent approach for tenants and landlords across Hounslow.
- That we only intervene when there is a complaint – this is reactive and offers no strategic interventions, as well as the possibility of under reporting due to the fear of retaliatory evictions.
- We could rely on voluntary accreditation – this tends to attract the responsible landlords and there is not a strong incentive for managing agents or landlords to join.
- Extend the additional licence scheme – this is our recommended position.
The objectives of Additional Licensing
| To improve housing conditions and standards of management by: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Inspect all properties as part of the licence process to ensure compliance with standards and absence of category 1 and 2 hazards. | Ensure that all licensable properties are licensed. | Control overcrowding by limited tenant and household numbers in accordance with national and the Council's local standards. |
| Robustly enforce the conditions of the licence. | Ensure HMO tenants have landlord contact details and are provided with written terms of tenancy. | Use the fit and proper test on landlords to stop unsuitable landlords running HMOs. |
| Reduce antisocial behaviour by: |
|---|
| HMO licence conditions will make landlords responsible for managing ASB and compliance with the Council's household waste storage and disposal schemes. |
| Developing improved links with local police teams and Safer Communities Complex case workers to work with and support landlord to resolve ASB issues associated with Licensed HMOs |
| Landlords who fail to cooperate or deliberately flout licence conditions will be subject to formal enforcement action. |
Who is impacted by this proposal?
Our proposal has the potential to impact on all residents, and all are able to take part in the consultation, if you are one of the following you may have a particular interest:
- you live, or are looking to live, in a HMO
- you are a landlord of a HMO
- you live or work near a HMO
- you are a Council team or an agency providing a service or involved in the regulation of HMOs.
We would like to know your views on:
- The proposal for the additional HMO licensing to cover the whole borough
- Your views on the objectives of additional licensing
- The proposed fee structure for landlords - see 'helpful documents'
- The proposed Licence Conditions - see 'helpful documents'
Please share your views
We would like to hear your views on our proposals for additional HMO licensing in Hounslow and on the proposed licence conditions and fees.
Please take part in our consultation (below), it will take you about ten minutes to complete.
If you would like to request an accessible version of this consultation such as large print, Easy Read or Braille, or you would like a paper copy sent to you please email housing.enforcement@hounslow.gov.uk or call 020 8583 2000.
