10^th Jun 2016

Another Brighton landlord has been ordered by Brighton City Council to stop renting out a family home to students; this is the fourth landlord to be told to do so since new rules over shared houses were implemented.

The landlord was previously warned in December last year as the council refused to grant her retrospective planning permission to continue using the house as a four bedroomed HMO (House in multiple occupation). Information from her planning application showed that she had started renting out the house to students earlier in the year from September 1st.

The council had refused her permission, as the tenancy was in direct conflict with local powers that had been introduced to stop areas in the City’s boundaries being overrun by student accommodation. The rules stated that licences would not be granted if any new HMO properties into the market took the proportion of houses in multiple occupation, within an area of fifty metres, above 10%.

The landlord launched an appeal and the final decision was taken by the Planning Inspectorate’s Andrew Steen. He ruled against the landlord as her HMO would take the number of HMOs over the 10% within 50 metres.

Mr Steen told the landlord that the reason why there was a restriction on the number of HMOs was to prevent noise and disturbances for the good of the community.
The landlord has been told that from September 7th she will not be allowed to use it as an HMO.

There have been three other rulings against ‘overcrowding’ HMOs and Julie Cattell, the Council’s Planning Committee chair, said: “It’s encouraging to have the Inspectorate’s support for the second time in two months. The universities make a major contribution to our economy and culture.

“But those benefits are easily undermined for residents if we allow over-concentrations of students to change the character of individual streets.”


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