There are many rlues connected with the rental of property in the UK. It is not a case of just tarting up your spare flat and popping a post card advertising for a tenant, in the local shop window any more – oh happy day for those looking for flats! the government has over the years ensured that there is a whole raft of rules on statute to stop unscrupulous landlords from taking advantage of people needing that rental property. Well, the government has done its best to root the bad guys out but there are definitely many homes rented out to far more folk than is legal. There had been one in the area known to my family. a large executive style detached house with 4 bedrooms, double garage, separate living rooms suddenly had new tenants, and after a short while, many different folk living there. These people did not appear to be related family members. one giveaway was their speaking in different languages to some and in english to others. There were often 8 cars there overnight when one might reasonably expect a max of five if a normal grown up family lived there. There was always huge amounts of garbage – twenty or more full black in addition to a completely full black wheelie bin – and they were told by neightbours to get the rubbish down to the tidy tip when the waste collection guys refused to take more than the average family load.
These are signs that a house is actually an HMO, that stands for home of multiple occupancy and it needs a licence to be granted by the local council. The council needs to carry out a risk assessment for their health & safety rating system within 5 years of any application for an HMO licence application. The landlord has much to do to ensure the ispector does not find a whole list iof things to fail them on.