So you’ve taken the leap and now you want to invest in a HMO – well done! Now comes the fun part – and perhaps the slightly less fun part, depending on how much you love administration(!).
Your property needs to be safe for the housemates and the below are important considerations you must undertake before moving forward with any purchase and welcoming tenants.
Planning
If your HMO is to have 7 bedrooms or more, you will likely need planning permission. This can be straightforward if the area for your HMO already has a number of HMO’s in the vicinity as a precedent will already have been set. However, if there are too many HMO’s in your chosen area then there may be planning restrictions in place, along with licence restrictions (see HMO licences below) which may prevent you creating another HMO.
Note that currently, you do not need Planning Permission for 6 bedrooms or less with most councils and houses can be converted under Permitted Development rights.
HMO Licencing
This is a requirement for any shared apartment, house or property with three or more shared households. The local council will have different fee structures and annoyingly, differ in requirements too so the first thing you should do is download the Council’s HMO guidelines for the area you wish to create your Co-Living space in and make sure you can meet all of the requirements. Examples are:
- At least one bathroom / shower-room per 3 people
- Single bedrooms are a minimum of 6.51 Sqm and doubles are a minimum of 10.22 Sqm
- The kitchen and communal areas are big enough for the size of household. An example for a 6-bed HMO might be a minimum m size of 8.5 Sqm without dining facilities, or 13.5Sqm with dining facilities
- Kitchens should have two ovens for cooking if there are more than five people (a microwave counts as an additional oven)
There are many more considerations and you should go through the HMO Licencing guide applicable to your chosen area to make sure you can meet them all before purchasing any potential property.
Fire Safety
This is obviously a major consideration and you need to make sure your HMO can support the following:
- A mains-wired fire alarm (LD2 Grade ‘A’ for all ‘unconnected’ tenants or LD3 Grade ‘D’ for students) with smoke and heat detectors in every room
- Emergency lighting on all floors
- Fire extinguishers / blankets in highest risk areas (i.e. kitchen)
- Fire doors confirming to at least FD30 (which means fire will take at least 30 minutes to burn through)
- Fire door closers and smoke seals
- Fireproof boarding under staircases
- Clear escape routes front and back (normally front door and garden door if a house)
- Thumb-turn locks on the inside of the house for inside main doors
You cannot compromise on these items and expect to pay around £4,000 – £8,000 or more just to meet these requirements alone. You’ll also need to consider what furnishings are appropriate (making sure all are fire retardant of course and that the labels showing this are visible) for your tenant types. Students want young and vibrant most often; working people want a little more class perhaps with more neutral tones so they can make the room a real home; and benefit claimants are perhaps slightly less fussy as cost is the primary concern – but cleanliness and good maintenance are important, as are hard-wearing furniture items.
Above all, if you make your places welcoming and homely, tenants will stay which means less voids, less time wasted finding new tenants and even recommendations from existing tenants when rooms do become available!