Minimum room size for HMO?

I have a 4 bed house in Vauxhall (Lambeth council). it was let to 4 sharers as non HMO from Sept 22 on 24 month AST. had to register for HMO due to new licencing rules and started that process last year and got the licence in Jan 2023. I have three doubles and a very small ‘box’ room single 4.64meter sq which that tenant paid less for – the HMO licence:

25. Occupancy
The licence holder to ensure that the following maximum numbers as households
and persons occupying the HMO, as listed below shall not be exceeded:
Room Location Size (m2) Permitted
(Bedroom 1)
9.50 Yes 1 person

Bedroom First Floor
Front Left
(Bedroom 2)
10.19 Yes 1 person

Bedroom First Floor
Rear Right
(Bedroom 3)
12.39 Yes 2 persons

Room* First Floor
Front Right
4.64< No 0 persons *The occupier of this room must vacate the room at the end of their tenancy (up to 18 months). After, this room shall not be re-let as a sleeping room. This room can be let if works are carried out to increase the room size congruent to Lambeth’s and legislative HMO sleeping room standards So basically if you have tenants already in place and the new HMO says any of the rooms are too small they give you a 'grace' period of up to 18 months. When my 'grace'period ends about Aug 2024 this BEFORE the AST end 24 month end date (Sept 2024) so I have to give the tenants notice prior in time for them to vacate in Aug 2024 Hope this helps a bit – do soem searches for Lambeth HMO guidleines. Overall a pain in the arse but can be navigated with some patience and I actually paid my agents to handle the application for about £450+Vat (plus £2024 licence fee to LBC!)

Also, I can still just have a standard single AST for sharing tenants ongoing

My view on this: The national minimum space standards are enforceable. The local space standards are not for an established HMO*. However, the local planning guidance including HMO room sizes can be expected to be applied at planning application stage if applying to convert C3 single family dwelling to C4 (HMO) Use Class.

*By established HMO I mean has been previously let to 3+ unrelated persons whether or not selective or additional licencing was applicable in the area previously.

Important to retain copies of all prior AST contracts and check you have the right Use Class in the Planning system.

Councils are clearly allowed to do as much damage as they like. I have am HMO room in Southwark. There the . Standard is 10 m minimum for a room where there is no living room. Mine was 8.51 m. So I took them to tribunal but we settled out of court and they gave in. Anybody wants to contact me, I’m very happy to speak to them directly because these things need challenging. What councils sadly do not realise is there isn’t a call for bigger rooms there is a call for more rooms but they seem to be going out of the way to make a fewer rooms. I have had to evict all my tenants in properties with rooms less than 6.51 m and sell up.

There will be many thousands of rooms in London smaller than this standard. The other side of course is for the rest of my properties all of this contributes to rents going up a lot.
What nobody seems to realise there’s any war on landlords, which this is is a war on Tenants as well. Deliberately reducing the amount of rooms available is exactly the opposite of what is needed.

Reply to the comment left by Andy Boothman at 16/06/2023 – 09:41
I also have a 3 bedroom flat in Lambeth and will be applying for an “Additional HMO Licence” soon as I will be leaving the UK. I assume that yours is a “Mandatory HMO Licence”. Do you know if the room sizes apply to both? I have a box room that is 7.28 square metres which potentially makes it unrentable. However, I lived in it myself for several years and rented out the other 2 larger rooms to friends with a lodger agreement.

I went through the hassle and cost of HMO licencing in 2018/19 and in the process had to exclude 3 smaller bedrooms that were smaller than the 6.51 sq/m although they were perfectly useable and had been fully occupied for the previous decade albeit at a lower rent. I remarked to the clipboard chappie from the council that it was a shame that it was now illegal for me to let perfectly safe, warm and comfortable rooms whilst it was legal to sleep in a doorway in town. He didn’t really see the irony!

I have no experience of HMO renting but know those that do and as your various comments here suggest it’s a case of let’s make this as difficult as we possibly can. As someone rightly pointed out…so many homeless who would no doubt be grateful for a small room to rent . Back in the day of my childhood a farm labourer lived his life in the barn. A happier chap you could not meet. Wonder what the council would have to say about that!!

Id like to pull this back into what the author is asking. I’ve had this conversation with Coventry on numerous occasions as to whether LAW (ie legislative minimum room sizes 6.51m2) trumps local authority minimum…so for example where there is no living room they want 10m2. I’ve found over the years noone really uses the living room and I’d like to remove it and enlarge the kitchen..my smallest room is 8.5m2…but I can’t use it as my kitchen-Diner would 15m2 and would need to be 18m2 to use that room.

Bottom line the council feels that they can set their own minimum standards despite the government legislation says nothing about living rooms for example

My understanding is that councils can do what they want, however much it hits the tenants and landlords, but in my case taking them to tribunal, made them say yes to 8.51m instead of their 10m

Reply to the comment left by Andy Boothman at 16/06/2023 – 09:41
Dear Andy

Fair enough, the smallest bedroom is under 6.51 sq.m. However, 2 occupiers are allowed for bedroom 3. If the tenants want to stay put, what’s to stop them saying that 2 of them will share bedroom 3? The 4th person can always move back to the small room after the inspectors are out of sight. As the end of the day, it is the tenants’ choice, the alternative being even more homelessness in this country, given the dire situation with housing at the moment, which can only get worse …