HMO stands for a “House in Multiple Occupancy”. This refers to a privately owned building which is rented out to tenants individually on a bedroom-by-bedroom basis rather than to a whole household.

With a traditional buy-to-let, tenants pay for the whole property during their stay. HMO’s see tenants paying only for their bedroom, with the communal living areas belonging wholly to the landlord. The landlord simply provides their tenants with certain amenities in communal living areas.

Due to the assumed increased health and safety risks of unfamiliar people living together, and a reported trend in unscrupulous landlords overcrowding their properties, the government have introduced additional regulations that a property needs to pass in order to be licenced to be rented out as an HMO.

HMO licence laws place regulations on certain features of the property, as well as the landlord them-self. In particular, the regulations focus on:

• The level of risk to health and safety in the building
• Fire Safety
• The condition and provision of amenities in the communal living areas of the property
• The size of bedrooms in the property
• Communal space
• The intentions of the landlord in converting their property into an HMO

Kendall Bailey works closely with the City of York Council’s HMO department to ensure all our properties are compliant and exceed the minimum requirements for Licencing. We carry out regular inspections to ensure that properties maintain our very high standards.