HMO – Camden Council sending letters to the mortgage provider?

HMO – Camden Council sending letters to the mortgage provider?

11:34 AM, 17th December 2018, About 5 years ago 23

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Over the last year I have submitted many HMO applications to Camden Council so to comply with their new additional HMO scheme (note: they are the only borough currently who are imposing this onto their landlords).

After submitting the application and having had a visit from the inspector we have carried out the works in accordance to their schedule of works and provided proof to them which they are happy with so we are now under the impression that everything is going accordingly as they did not arrange for a further visit.

After several weeks had passed we received a letter from our mortgage provider advising us that they had received a letter from the council advising them that we have applied for a HMO application which our mortgage provider advised us we are breaching our mortgage terms and condition. We then had to write back to the mortgage broker advising them that they had a different definition of a HMO compared to the councils definition and that we have not breached their terms and conditions in anyway what so ever.

They then asked for an AST which we then provided. Even though we have provided all the relevant information to the mortgage company they still blocked our account. We then got the council to write a letter to us giving their definition of a HMO which we then forwarded to the mortgage provider and after voicing our frustration with the way they treated us as a customer we wanted to leave and go elsewhere they then gave in and unblocked our account.

We have received this letter for several properties and it is just so frustrating as the issue lies in the definition of a HMO and the fact that we have not breached our terms and condition what so ever with our mortgage provider yet we still received these letters advising that we have breached their terms is very worrying and blocking our account is just going over the top.

Has anyone experienced this issue?

If so, how did you deal with this?

Robert


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Comments

Anne Nixon

15:36 PM, 20th December 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by H B at 19/12/2018 - 19:58
The problem there HB is that only they know what they require as this seems to vary from authority to authority and even from the building regs department and the LHA team within the same council they all have their own interpretations.
An example being that according to the LHA inspection team in the area I have the dubious pleasure of dealing with I am told that the ground floor bedrooms with compliant escape windows I had installed during the conversion cannot have their escape route through these compliant windows it has to be through the kitchen and so I must have a sprinkler system installed there.

Mark Shine

18:02 PM, 20th December 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by H B at 20/12/2018 - 10:45
@ HB
Camden send out 20 or so page documents with their requirements to applicants for additional HMOs (in my case a couple of 3 bed flats with 3 sharers living cohesively and a single AST).

But I do take your point in that in order for them to minimise their legal risk it would seem they would have 2 main options. Either say nothing (as you indicated) or absolutely everything (as Camden do).

Mark Shine

18:03 PM, 20th December 2018, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Rob Crawford at 20/12/2018 - 13:48
@ Rob
As others have said: LAs have different requirements, but note the last sentence in the below from Camden:

“A house in multiple occupation (HMO) is a property occupied by 3 or more people (including children) who form more than 1 family. A family includes co-habiting partners. The tenancy agreement is not relevant in working out if a house is an HMO. “
https://www.camden.gov.uk/houses-multiple-occupation

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