Does an Airbnb room count towards an HMO?
The definition of HMO (Housing Act 2004) includes “occupied by three or more unrelated persons” and “(d) the living accommodation is occupied by those persons as their only or main residence or they are to be treated as so occupying it (see section 259)”.
My question is this: does a room occupied by any person for a short stay (only a few days or weeks at a time) count as one of the HMO rooms, when it clearly is not their “only or main residence”?
Example 1: a 3-bed house has two sharers, plus a 3rd room offered on Airbnb for short stays. Only two of them call the house their “only or main residence”, so is it an HMO?
Example 2: a 5-bed, 3-storey house has four sharers as “only and main residence” so this would be an HMO but not mandatorily licensable. If the 5th room is offered on Airbnb for short stays, would this trigger the mandatory licensing?
Many thanks
Richard
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Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 1130 - Articles: 2
4:31 PM, 6th September 2016, About 10 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Mandy Thomson” at “06/09/2016 – 16:25“:
…In short, Richard’s property would be C1, a sort of hotel or boarding house, something that comes under entirely separate regulations.
Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 158 - Articles: 1
12:08 AM, 7th September 2016, About 10 years ago
Thanks Anne and Mandy – my focus was on licensing (rather than planning), and what happens if just one room of a house is used for short stays, not the whole house (although I guess I did not make that clear at the beginning).
Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 158 - Articles: 1
12:20 AM, 7th September 2016, About 10 years ago
Mandy: I am not sure if am reading the same regulation as you have quoted (5(a)?), but that seems to refer to accommodation provided by an employer to “a migrant worker or a seasonal worker”? This is not the case here, not least because I am not the short-stayer’s employer.
Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 1130 - Articles: 2
8:44 AM, 7th September 2016, About 10 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Richard Peeters” at “07/09/2016 – 00:20“:
Richard, it’s under the heading, “Persons treated as occupying premises as their only or main residence for the purposes of section 254 of the Act” (clause 5) of the regulations: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/373/made
Member Since November 2013 - Comments: 158 - Articles: 1
9:52 AM, 7th September 2016, About 10 years ago
Thanks Mandy, I think we are looking towards the same thing. Section 254 points to Section 259, from which I have quoted earlier in this thread. None of the categories listed seem to apply to these short-stay occupants.