Councillors aim to examine Wrexham’s licensing of houses in multiple occupation to review local standards

Calls for councillors to scrutinise the licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) across Wrexham have been made.

A topic request form signed by Holt councillor Michael Morris and Smithfield councillor Adrienne Jeorrett has been submitted for consideration by members of the homes and environment scrutiny committee.

It states that: “For some time members have expressed concern over the quality, appropriateness and size of accommodation which is offered to individuals residing in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and which is controlled by the licensing regime rather than through the planning process.”

Such concerns over the size of accommodation and amenity space provided in some HMO proposals have been raised numerous times over the years by councillors and planning committee members.

Speaking about plans to convert a property on the outskirts of the town into a HMO last December, Cllr Jeorrett said it was a “great disappointment that adults are having to live in one room with a long term impact on health and wellbeing.”

As part of the work looking into the licensing of HMOs, it is suggested that scrutiny “undertake a review of how the current standards were arrived at” and if they are nationally prescribed or determined locally.

It also proposes that the committee:

– Compare with other Local Authorities to establish if our standards are more or less generous than others and if they need reviewing.
– Consider the issue of bed spaces versus bedrooms and occupancy numbers.
– Consider how to ensure that HMOs offer a reasonable standard of accommodation by providing rooms of an adequate size for the number of occupants and reasonable communal living areas/ circulation space.
– Establish if there need to have differing standards for the various types of HMO eg. those that primarily house contractors who are working in the area and those that are conventionally let to tenants – (the former having a much greater parking need)
– Possibly look at a “Landlords Charter” on how they will deal with complaints

It is hoped that the scrutiny committee will help “remove the tensions between determining planning applications and and the licensing regime for HMOs” – along with “ensuring a better quality of accommodation for the tenants” and “reducing the tensions with the adjoining community neighbours”.

It is estimated that the topic will take four months to be examined by scrutiny members.

Previously in 2017 we have reported how there has been concerns that there is a lack of staff due to council cuts for inspections, as well as the implication there could well be a large number of unregistered HMO’s out there.

At the time we reported, “Detail was given to the meeting over the five year inspection periods, with an officer explaining that although the five years is the maximum mandatory inspection period, HMOs that are of concern could be inspected much more regularly such as six monthly. Lead Member for Housing, Cllr D J Griffiths, did point out that it was a chicken and egg situation at times as without investigating properties the council would not know of any issues to deal with, but without the staff to do so then investigations may not be as frequent” and “More detail was given on work done to locate unregistered HMOs, including: “There are probably more HMOs than are legally registered, but it is finding them is the challenge. We look at various sources, council tax bills, housing benefit information, or even looking on the internet to see what is to let locally.”