Issue - meetings

ORDERED That Executive approve: 

1.    The fee structure set out in paragraph 4.10 of the report and in Appendix 1, and

2.    The review of the HMO licensing process.

The Deputy Mayor submitted a report, on the Mayor’s behalf, for Executive’s consideration. The purpose of the report was to seek Executive approval for the Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) fee structure and reviewed licensing process. 

Since 2006, Middlesbrough Council had delivered a statutory (mandatory) licensing scheme for HMOs occupied by five or more unrelated people who shared amenities such as a bathroom, kitchen or living space. This was a duty under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004. Owners of HMOs were required to submit a licence application and pay a fee. Environmental Health Officers then carried out an inspection of the property to check conditions met safety standards and good management arrangements were in place. Once granted a licence was usually issued for a five-year period. Currently, HMOs were only re-inspected during the five-year period if complaints were made by tenants or others regarding standards or management issues and regulatory action may be necessary.  On an annual basis gas safety and electrical safety certificates were required to be submitted to the local authority by the property owners.

HMOs provided more affordable single or double person accommodation and, due to Middlesbrough’s demographic, there was a considerable demand for this type of accommodation, particularly from the most vulnerable tenants. HMO accommodation was often used for emergency accommodation for the homeless. The number of HMOs had increased in recent years, providing more accommodation for a growing student market as well as meeting the need for low-cost single-person accommodation.

There were currently around 1,730 people living in around 245 licensed HMOs in Middlesbrough, the majority of these offered a compliant standard of accommodation. There were HMO properties that operated illegally without a licence. These only become known to officers when tenants made complaints or intelligence was shared between regulatory bodies, including review of Council tax records and information sharing with other agencies, such as the Fire Brigade. It was difficult to quantify the extent of unlicensed HMOs.

Local Authorities set their own fees to recover the costs of administrating and enforcing mandatory HMO licensing. The current fee structure (2024/2025) was £755.42 for HMOs with 5 bedrooms plus a further £24.98 for each additional bedroom.  This fee was for a five-year licence.

ORDERED That Executive approve:  

1.    The fee structure set out in paragraph 4.10 of the report and in Appendix 1, and

2.    The review of the HMO licensing process.

OPTIONS

The implementation of a new fee and fee structure would enable the Council to deliver its regulatory requirements and deliver a neutral budget cost-effective licensing scheme. It would also help to deliver the Council’s aspiration of providing high quality, affordable housing for all.

The option to ‘Do Nothing’: this would have resulted in the Council continuing to charge the current fees and applying a single fee scheme which would be contrary to recent legal determination.  The HMO licensing scheme would have to operate within the current income received from application fees, with the current staffing resource which would restrict the delivery  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25