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Item included for information:
Student Housing in Oxford under HMO laws
Background
Oxford has decided to use the Additional Licensing
provision in the 2004 Act to make all its HMOs licensable. This
is in order to control the spread of HMO’s and to regulate
their use and standards.
According to the Oxford City Council Website:
“They form an unusually high percentage of houses in
the city with 1 in 5 of the resident population living in an
HMO. The House Condition Survey 2005 reported that HMOs provided
the poorest homes in the city and that 70 per cent were unsafe.
HMOs generate over 2000 service requests/complaints a year
to Oxford City Council and the number of complaints have risen
steadily over recent years, despite surveys indicating many
problems go unreported. They are also associated with issues
that affect the neighborhood such as rubbish.”
Many three storey HMOs are already licensed under
the existing licensing rules. However, Councillor Joe McManners,
Executive Member for Housing said:
“Local residents in Oxford have told us
that the Council needs to do more to control the impact of HMOs
and we’ve listened to what they’ve had to say. We’ve
tried using all our existing powers but they haven’t been
enough to make the difference that is needed. We believe that
additional licensing will provide us with those extra powers
that we need and that it will have a really positive impact.
Our aim is to improve the living conditions for tenants within
HMOs as they provide the worst accommodation in the City.”
In 2005, Oxford City Council undertook a housing
condition survey that claimed that 70 per cent of HMOs were 'unsafe',
61.3 per cent had below standard fire detection and 16.9 per cent
had no fire detection at all.
It is hope that the HMO licensing will help to regulate
unsafe housing and end the exploitation of students by landlords
who provide it. It is hope that this new legislations will encourage
universities to provide more purpose-built accommodation, as it
is a more efficient use of land and leads to reduced tension between
different types of housing and different types of residents.
The consultation ended in March 2011 and it will
now take until 2012 to be implemented as the council is giving
a year's notice of the change. Until then there is no evidence
of the schemes success or failure.
The cost of HMO licensing
At about £591,931 per year, the scheme will
be quite expensive, although the Council state that it will be
covered by the licensing fees. However others are not so sure.
Jan Bartlett, owner of Cowley Road firm Premier Letting, speaking
in the Oxford Mail said that the cost could be prohibitive if
landlords don’t pay the license fees:
“The scheme will be difficult to police and bad landlords
just won’t sign up”
She suggested that the Local Authority save money
by using local letting agents to police the scheme instead of
hiring new staff. Although presumably she is not suggesting that
agents perform this public service for nothing.
Legal Action
PainSmith Solicitors along with Jonathan Manning
and Justin Bates of Arden Chambers were been instructed by a group
of Oxford landlords, lettings agents, and other interested parties
to pursue an action for judicial review of Oxford City Council’s
decision to make an additional licensing designation for the whole
of Oxford.
PainSmith asserted that the scheme, if carried forward
as currently planned, would leave many landlords with their properties
designated as HMOs but because Oxford intends to “phase”
licence applications over the next 3-4 years these landlords would
not be able to apply for a licence. This would, as a consequence,
place these landlords in breach of the law and further make them
unable to serve a valid notice under section 21 of the Housing
Act 1988 on their tenants. This situation cannot be what the Council
intends and is simply irrational.
Further Information
http://www.oxford.gov.uk/PageRender/decH/Houses_in_Multiple_Occupation_occw.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-2031337/Will-students-driven-house-shares-Oxford-leads-clampdown-fee-rise-landlords.html#ixzz1fBaFlcOA
http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/08/03/oxford-leads-the-way-with-hmo-licensing/
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To Let boards
17 March 2011
The Town Hall has come up with the following information
following a request from Anson Westbrook.
Subsection (2) of Class 3A of the Town and Country
Planning (Control of Advertisements)(England) Regulations 2007
states "No advertisement may be displayed indicating that
land or premises have been sold or let, other than by the addition
to an existing board of a statement that a sale or letting has
been agreed, or that land or premises have been sold, subject
to contract"
Subsection (3) of Class 3A states "The advertisement
shall be removed within 14 days after completion of a sale or
a grant of tenancy"
Consequently once an agreement has been made that
a person or group of persons can occupy a property a slip can
be added to an existing 'To Let' board to say 'Let , subject to
contract or STC', once the letting of a tenancy has been completed
the board has to be removed within 14 days. It is not unusual
for agreements to be made for a property to be let months in advance
of the tenancy being granted and therefore boards stating 'Let,
subject to contract' can be displyed legally during this period.
It is then a matter for the relevant agent to ensure that their
boards are removed within a period of 14 days from the grant of
the tenancy.
In the cases of boards that simply state 'Let' we
assume a tenancy has been granted and in these circumstances the
board should be removed within 14 days of the 'Let' sign appearing
however, we are finding an increasing number of situations where
a 'Let' board is displayed but the tenancy has yet to be granted.
We are in the process of drafting a letting to all letting agents
reminding of the requirement to add the words 'subject to contract'
or the abreviation 'STC' to their boards where tenancies have
yet to be granted and also that their boards should be removed
within 14 days of the date the tenancy is granted.
Council leader takes
up HMO issue
1.October 2010
Following lobbying from the Winton Forum, new Council
Leader Peter Charon has written to the housing minister.
Here is his letter:
Dear Mr. Shapps,
Houses in Multiple Occupation – Bournemouth
Borough Council
I am writing to you in my capacity as both the Leader
of the Council and the Housing Portfolio Holder.
Bournemouth has a fantastic University – which
has grown dramatically over the past 15 or so years. We also have
one of the largest concentrations of Language Schools in the country.
That growth however has meant an ever increasing influx of young
people but the pace of purpose built student halls of residences
has not been able to keep up.
As a consequence the gap has been filled by private sector landlords
with significant numbers of students living in several of our
communities, notably Winton, Wallisdown, Charminster, Boscombe
and of course our Town Centre. Inevitably these properties are
Houses in Multiple Occupation – HMO’s. In general these
properties are well managed and run, but there are some that are
not. Moreover, many residents in those particular parts of our
town face the usual issues associated with student HMO’s
particularly but not limited to absentee management, noise, refuse/recycling,
parking, letting agents boards and so on. It is essential that
the Council responds to and addresses those concerns as a matter
of urgency.
We were certainly supportive of the new planning
regulations that came into force on April 1 2010 – as this
would have been the key way in which we would have been able to
control the spread and concentrated proliferation of student house
/ HMO’s. Like a number of other Councils – Milton Keynes
and Leeds amongst them - I too feel the need to write to you and
express disappointment at the relative lack of due consideration
and consultation in respect of your decision to abolish the requirement
to seek planning permission when changing the use of a property
from the new Class C3 to C4 with effect from today. We will lose
the control of insisting on conditions where consent might have
been granted and it seems as if we will now have to rely on the
possibility of an Article 4 Directive. This will be cumbersome
and potentially expensive if compensation issues are not addressed
and dealt with properly.
Whilst we understand and applaud the general thrust
of the Government’s desire to remove layers of bureaucracy
where HMO’s simply do not present a problem, what is required
is a simple mechanism which will allow individual Councils where
there is a demonstrable issue of local concern to “opt-out”
of the new regime, thereby maintaining our ability as part of
the wider localism agenda to make local decisions that affect
our residents locally.
That would certainly be the case here in Bournemouth
and I would certainly welcome your urgent views on the matter.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr Peter Charon
Redhill and Northbourne Ward
Leader and Housing Portfolio Holder
Government statement on HMOs
Published 7 September 2010
Housing Minister Grant Shapps says that landlords
and councils will no longer be faced with bureaucracy aimed at
micro-managing rented housing.
The Minister laid new regulations that could cut
as many as 8,500 planning applications from the system, freeing
up councils to focus on local priorities. Currently landlords
have to submit a planning application to rent their properties
to unrelated tenants - known as Houses in Multiple Occupation.
Regulations published today will ensure councils only have to
use this power where they know high concentrations of shared homes
are a problem.
Too many shared homes in one area can cause problems.
A high number of short term tenants with little stake in the community
can leave an area with an unloved look and feel, which can sometimes
create seasonal ghost towns that harm local economies, anti-social
behaviour and an increase in crime.
But the Minister said that a blanket requirement
to manage these through the planning system is a drain on council
resources, and threatens to drive good landlords away from the
rental sector because of increased costs and red tape, therefore
restricting availability of affordable homes for rent.
Currently up to 8,500 planning applications may
be added to the system each year if every landlord looking to
turn their property into a shared home is forced to submit an
application, regardless of local circumstances.
Housing Minister Grant Shapps said:
"Councils understand their local area best,
and they don't need burdensome rules that assume housing issues
in every town, village and hamlet are exactly the same. I am also
committed to safeguard the supply of rented housing - shared homes
are vital for people who want to live and work in towns and cities,
and are important to the economy.
"That's why I'm giving councils greater
flexibility to manage shared homes in their local area. Where
there are local issues with shared homes, councils will have all
the tools they need to deal with the problem - but they will avoid
getting bogged down in pointless applications, and landlords won't
be put off renting shared homes where they are needed."
HMO application blocked
14 July 2010
The tenacity of a Winton Forum member has led to
the Council refusing planning permission for a property in Frederica
Road to be turned into a House of Multiple Occupation.
The Forum member brought the application to the
attention of Wallisdown and Winton West Councillors Rod Cooper
and Nicola Green.
The Proposal will not now go ahead because it was
considered that the use of the dwelling house as a House of Multiple
Occupation with six bedrooms would result in an over intensive
residential use, which would be harmful to the character and appearance
of the locality. Furthermore, intensive use and increased levels
of activity would adversely impact on the residential amenity
of the neighbouring properties".
Interestingly, the reasons for refusal would apply
to most planning applications to convert a residential house to
HMOs. So let's get objecting!!!
Interestingly the property is still being advertised
as 'To Let'. The landlord's presumption of obtaining planning
permission is typical of how things have been up until now. The
Planning Enforcement Officer has been made aware of this.
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Another application ditched
7 August 2010
Winton residents have had yet another success -
this time in Stanfield Road.
An application to convert 17 Stanfield Road into
an HMO was turned down. The owner wanted to let it out to six
students.
(Application Number 7-2010-24477).
Tips when objecting to an HMO application
The key areas when objecting to a HMO application
are:
- amenity
- parking
- refuse collection
- litter
- rubbish
- overgrown gardens
- overcrowding
- change of area character
- noise
- reduction of available housing stock for local people
- nuisance and saturation.
Records of complaints to the Police and Town Hall
Environment agencies regarding problems with existing neighbouring
HMOs are extremely useful.
Useful web sites
PPS 3 National policy. Difficult to read
but has useful sections on criminality and ecology and as well
as other policies restated in the local planning documents.
Government
Planning Policy
Local Planning sites
Local
Plan; although it is out of date it is still referred to and
helpful
Useful for ideas of other current planning applications
Bournemouth
Planning Board
Main
page for the design guide. Current local policy. Very useful.
Go through with a fine tooth comb!
Planning
Aid; a free service giving advice to applicants and objectors
http://www.planning-applications.co.uk/objection.htm
http://www.bvps.org.uk/Objecting.htm
Another
guide to objecting
Friends
of the Earth - planning
http://www.planning-objections.com/
Communities
Planning page
Bournemouth
Civic Society -Planning
CPRE
- Planning Help
The Housing Problem
In Winton, 12.89% of all housing is let as Houses
of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) to Bournemouth University and Arts
Institute Students. Students make up over 25% of Winton's population!
Most Students are well behaved and considerate neighbours but
a small percentage are not and living near them is a nightmare
for many of members of our community. Winton has reached and passed
HMO saturation point. Efforts to police anti social behaviour,
although well meant, have been ineffective and for many members
of our community their life is a misery. Some streets in Winton
are over 50% HMOs.
Recent legislation will provide your council with the opportunity
to redress the balance between the Student population and the
rest of the Winton Community. The Council now has the power to
control the number of HMOs in your street and in your area.
Your Council has started a public consultation for a Local Development
Framework Core Strategy. Included in this consultation will be
the opportunity to look at Sustainable Communities. Many of you
believe Winton is no longer a sustainable community and residents
are selling up and leaving the area.
The University year ends this month and many of Winton's students
will return to their home towns. Alarmingly there has been recent
activity with even more properties being purchased by would be
HMO landlords. What can you do about this?
If you agree that Winton has reached saturation point and the
level of Student HMOs must be rolled-back then contact your Councillor:
anniina.davie@bournemouth.gov.uk
(07711 502 204)
johann.edward@bournemouth.gov.uk
(01202 243598)
theo.stratton@bournemouth.gov.uk
(07746 427308)
And Member of Parliament
Conor Burns MP conor.burns.mp@parliament.uk
(01202 776607)
If you live in Charminster/Queen's Park, your councillors
are:
carol.ainge@bournemouth.gov.uk
(01202 395110)
mark.anderson@bournemouth.gov.uk
(01202 775483 )
Cheryl Johnson cherylaj@msn.com
(07789 711524)
and Member of Parliament
Tobias Elwood ellwoodt@parliament.uk
(01202) 397047)
Let them know exactly how you feel. It's your community - don't
let apathy deprive you of it.
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