These regulations apply to all HMOs, regardless of whether they are licensed. The Licensing and Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation ((Additional Provisions) (England) Regulations 2007 apply to converted blocks of flats that do not meet the Building Regulations 1991.These are often known as Section 257 HMOs.
Both sets of regulations impose duties on managers (with some requirements on occupiers) to ensure that standards are maintained. The duties include the following:
Provision of information for occupiers
The manager must ensure that his name, address and any telephone contact number are made available to each household in the HMO and that these details are clearly displayed in a prominent position in the HMO
Safety measures
The manager must:
- Ensure that all means of escape from fire in the HMO are kept free from obstruction and maintained in good order and repair
- Ensure that any fire fighting equipment and fire alarms are maintained in good working order
- Ensure that where the HMO has more than four occupiers, that all notices indicating the location of means of escape from fire are displayed in positions within the HMO that enable them to be clearly visible to the occupiers
- Take all measures as are reasonably required to protect the occupiers of the HMO from injury having regard to the design, structural conditions and number of occupiers.
- Take measures in relation to any roof or balcony that is unsafe, to either ensure that it is made safe or prevent access to it for so long as it remains unsafe, and in relation to any window sill which is at or near floor level, ensure that bars or other safeguards are provided to protect the occupiers from accidents.
Water supply and drainage
The manager must ensure that the water supply and drainage system serving the HMO is maintained in good, clean and working condition.
Supply and maintenance of gas and electricity
Managers must:
- Not unreasonably interrupt supplies of gas or electricity
- Provide Fylde Borough Council within 7 days of request, the latest gas appliance test certificate for the HMO.
- Ensure that every fixed electrical installation is inspected and tested at intervals not exceeding 5 years by a person qualified to undertake such inspection and testing, AND obtain a certificate from the person conducting the test, specifying the results of the test AND supply that certificate to Fylde Borough Council within 7days of receiving a request.
Maintenance of common parts, fixtures, fittings and appliances
Managers must ensure that all common parts of the HMO are maintained in a safe and working condition, in good and clean decorative order where appropriate, and kept reasonably free from obstruction. This includes:
- Water, gas and electricity supplies
- Drainage facilities
- Appliances such as cookers, heaters, washing machines
- Shared lighting and heating facilities, including hot water supplies
- Shared toilets, baths, sinks and basins
- Shared cooking, food storage and other installations
- Staircases, handrails, halls, passages and landings, including floor coverings
- Windows and other means of ventilation
- Out buildings, forecourts, paths, boundary walls, fences, yards and gardens
Maintenance of living accommodation
Managers must ensure that:
- Each unit of living accommodation within the HMO and any furniture supplied with it are in clean condition at the beginning of a person’s occupation of it.
- The internal structure, every window and other means of ventilation and any fixtures, fittings or appliances supplied within it are maintained in good repair and clean working order, subject to the tenant behaving in a tenant like manner
Waste disposal
Managers must provide enough bins for refuse pending their disposal, ensure that rubbish does not accumulate, and make such further arrangements for the disposal having regard to any service provided by the Council.
Duties of occupiers
Occupiers must:
- Conduct himself in such a way that will not hinder or frustrate the manager in the performance of his duties;
- Take reasonable care to avoid damage and disrepair
- Cooperate in a reasonable way with the manager, and provide information to allow him/her to carry out their duties
- Allow the manager to access their living accommodation, at all reasonable times, for any purpose connected with the carrying out of duties imposed on him by these Regulations
- Comply with any reasonable arrangements or instructions made by the manager regarding means of escape from fire and the storage or disposal of refuse
