The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Order 2010.
Changes in Planning Legislation in England for HMO’s (Houses in multiple Occupation
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
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Please could you explain why you think existing HMOs will require planning permission once a new tenancy agreement comes into force? The Planning rules (Circular 05/10)state that:
“After the amended UCO comes into effect, uses that previously fell into the former C3: Dwellinghouses use class will fall into one of the new C3 or C4 use classes. Reclassification of a use does not amount to development within the meaning of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990″.
My reading of this is that the new planning rules for HMOs only apply to newly formed HMOs. Please could someone come back to me on this point. Many thanks.
Thanks for the comment.
In reply, we now know that the legislation is only applicable to new HMO’s and not renewals of tenancies. Also that it is only applicable to certain areas. These changes have been made following the change of Government