The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2010.
In my previous post I reported that there is to be a change in the Planning Consent needed for HMO’s – Three or more persons forming two or more households
The amendment to the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 to create a separate planning class for HMOs. The changes will come into force on 6 April 2010. The changes will only apply to England as Wales has its own devolved powers to deal with these matters.
The statutory instrument to carry out this change has just been published on the OPSI website as the The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2010.
The new planning classes will be as follows:
Class C3 has been amended to cover single households of up to six occupiers.
A new class C4 has been created which will cover HMOs of up to six people.
Properties with more than six occupiers will continue to be outside any planning category.
The Changes to the Planning laws will bring property into line with the existing definition of HMO in the Housing Act 2004.
This will mean that as from 6th April 2010 ANY PROPERTY which is an HMO will now need to have a separate planning approval. It has been noted that it will apply to new HMO’s, but needles to say that it will apply to renewals of tenancy AFTER this date. No information is available at present on this area
Even if a License is NOT Required, Planning Consent will be required to use a property in this manner
More and more landlords will now be caught up with this change and therefore costs will rise due to increased paperwork and legislation – it conforming to HMO Regulations, HHSRS, etc.
For Wales, as yet there is no plan to change the legislation on the back of this Primary legislation, however, I can see that it is a way of increasing funds to capital strapped local authorities and therefore don’t rule out similar Planning Legislation in Wales
More information on HMOs can be found at www.houses-in-multiple-occupation.com
If you have used a property as an HMO before 6th April 2010 and can demonstrate this, it will have ‘Established Use’ under this legislation and therefore will NOT require planning consent.
Thanks for the comment.
Correct, this has always been the case.
But what it does mean is that HHSRS will still apply and therefore, a landlord may be dawn into dealing with issues under the HMO legislation as each local authority can adopt their own Interpretation of the legislation.
Also watch out for councils using Council Tax legislation for making landlords pay CT when two occupiers are exempt (students). This is now cropping up.
Thanks for the info