Tower Hamlets – HMO legal requirements confusion

Tower Hamlets – HMO legal requirements confusion

14:24 PM, 8th December 2014, About 9 years ago 1

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I am a private landlord in Tower Hamlets London. I am becoming increasingly confused about various HMO statuses and legal requirements and can’t seem to find answers anywhere on the Internet. I have tied calling my local authority but I just keep getting an answer machine. Tower Hamlets - HMO legal requirements confusion

My property is a 3 bedroomed Victorian Terrace house. I originally let this to one tenant who then sub let the other two rooms to her friends (she gave them separate tenancy agreements that she had organized her self). When I came to renew the Landlords house insurance the insurer said they could not insure me as they did not insure properties, which included sub let rooms. I therefore changed the agreement to have all 3 tenants on one tenancy agreement. I have since been advised by my electrician that this now means my house is an HMO and therefore requires a whole host of legal safety checks. One of which would be to put fire doors throughout the property.

Fire Safety legal requirements

What are the fire safety legal requirements for HMO and none HMO properties? Do I need to have fitted a mains fire alarm on all floors (even though the property was built in 1890) and heat sensors in the kitchen? Do these have to have a dedicated electrical line to the fuse box or can they be wired to a light fitting, should they have a radio link between them. Are there any other legal requirements needed

Thank you for any advise you can give me.

Regards

Betty Hutcheson


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Comments

Joe Bloggs

0:28 AM, 9th December 2014, About 9 years ago

contractors seldom give independent advice! ask him why he says that. building regs do not apply retrospectively and 3 unrelated tenants is not a mandatory HMO (even if the house is three plus storeys).
furthermore, i believe there are no additional or selective licensing regimes in LBTH.

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