The HMO Licence Condition and the Extra Occupant
You manage a four-bedroom house let to four individual tenants on separate room-by-room ASTs. The property is licensed as a small HMO with a condition that no more than four occupants may reside there. One tenant has asked if her partner can move in 'temporarily' for three months while their own flat purchase completes. The landlord is happy because the partner will contribute £400 a month. The other tenants have no objection. The licence also requires a fire risk assessment, which was last reviewed two years ago, and the property has one smoke alarm per floor and no heat detector in the kitchen.
1. Can the partner move in? Explain the licensing and safety implications.
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Not without checking the licence. The licence condition caps occupancy at four, and a fifth occupant would breach it. Consequences of breach:
- The local authority can take enforcement action against the licence holder, including prosecution or a civil penalty.
- The licence could be revoked or varied.
- Insurance may be invalidated if occupancy exceeds the declared level.
- The property may become a large HMO if it meets the threshold, triggering different licensing requirements.
Safety implications: a fifth occupant increases fire risk and means the existing fire precautions may be inadequate. The fire risk assessment is two years old and should be reviewed. One smoke alarm per floor with no heat detector in the kitchen is likely to fall short of current guidance for a four-bedroom HMO.
Advice: tell the tenant the partner cannot move in until the licence is varied and the fire safety arrangements are reviewed and, if necessary, upgraded.
2. The landlord wants to proceed anyway. What should you do?
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You should not facilitate a breach of the licence. Steps:
- Write to the landlord setting out the licence condition, the enforcement risk, the insurance risk, and the fire safety risk.
- Recommend applying to the local authority to vary the licence before any move-in.
- Recommend commissioning an updated fire risk assessment and installing a heat detector in the kitchen and confirming smoke alarm coverage.
- If the landlord insists, record your advice in writing and decline to act in a way that breaches the licence.
- Consider whether you must report the breach to the local authority; at minimum, take advice on your own position as managing agent.
Do not collect rent from the partner or add them to a tenancy until the position is regularised.
3. What fire safety improvements are likely to be needed, and how should they be prioritised?
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Likely improvements:
- A heat detector in the kitchen, because smoke alarms are prone to false alarms there.
- Confirmation of a smoke alarm on each floor, ideally interlinked.
- A review of the fire risk assessment, which is two years old; it should be reviewed annually or on material change.
- Clear escape routes and fire doors in good condition.
- Emergency lighting if the escape route is not adequately lit.
Prioritisation:
- Review the fire risk assessment first, because it determines what is needed.
- Address life-safety items: detection, escape routes, fire doors.
- Then address lesser items.
Record the improvements, dates, and contractor details, and give the tenants information on what to do in a fire.