Appendix 1

Abbreviations and definitions used in this document

Abbreviations: 

ADC – Arun District Council
CA – Citizens Advice
BRE – Building Research Establishment
EA - Emergency Accommodation
EICR – Electrical Installation Condition Report
EPC – Energy Performance Certificate
HHSRS - Housing Health and Safety Rating System
HMO – House in Multiple Occupation
MMF - Manufactured Mineral Fibres
NRLA - National Residential Landlords Association
ONS – Office for National Statistics
PRS – Private Rented Sector
SAP – Standard Assessment Procedure
TA - Temporary Accommodation
WSCC – West Sussex County Council
WSFRS – West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service

Household

This could be a single person or members of the same family who live together. This includes people who are married or living together, people in same-sex relationships, any member of a family (including aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, grandparents and grandchildren and their partners; stepchildren and foster children). It also includes unrelated occupiers living with a family such as carers or nannies. However, friends and students occupying a house on a shared tenancy are viewed as multiple households.

Relevant persons

This is defined in the Housing Act 2004 and includes other people having an estate or interest in the property such as leaseholders, mortgage companies and management companies.

Section 254 HMOs

  • A house occupied by persons forming more than one household who share a basic amenity, such as a bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities. This is called ‘the standard test’.
  • A flat occupied by persons forming more than one household* who share a basic amenity (all of which are within the flat), such as a bathroom, toilet or cooking facilities. This is called ‘the self-contained flat test’.
  • A building that has been converted into flats but not all of the flats are fully self-contained flats. There may not necessarily be sharing of amenities. This is called ‘the converted building test’.

Section 257 HMOs

A converted block of flats (the whole building or part of a building) will be a ‘section 257’ HMO where the following apply:

  • the building (or part of it) has been converted entirely into self-contained flats; and
  • the conversion into self-contained flats did not meet the Building Regulations 1991 (or later); and
  • less than two-thirds of the flats are owner-occupied

For the purpose of the proposed scheme an HMO is a building or part of a building if it falls into the following criteria:

  1. it consists of one or more units of living accommodation not consisting of a self-contained flat or flats.
  2. the living accommodation is occupied by persons who do not form a single household.
  3. the living accommodation is occupied by those persons as their only or main residence, or they are to be treated as so occupying it.
  4. their occupation of the living accommodation constitutes the only use of that accommodation.
  5. rents are payable or other consideration is to be provided in respect of at least one of those persons’ occupation of the living accommodation.
  6. two or more of the households who occupy the living accommodation share one or more basic amenities or the living accommodation is lacking in one or more basic amenities.

A self-contained flat is an HMO if paragraphs b-f above apply.

A converted building or a part of a converted building is an HMO if:

  1. it is a converted building.
  2. it contains one or more units of living accommodation that do not consist of a self-contained, flat or flats (whether or not it also contains any such flat or flats).
  3. the living accommodation is occupied by persons who do not form a single household.
  4. the living accommodation is occupied by those persons as their only or main residence, or they are to be treated as so occupying it.
  5. their occupation of the living accommodation constitutes the only use of that accommodation.
  6. rents are payable or other consideration is to be provided in respect of at least one of those persons’ occupation of the living accommodation.

It is a converted block of flats to which section 257 of the Housing Act 2004 applies.

An HMO declaration is in force in respect of it under section 255 of the Housing Act 2004.

The council specifically excludes the following categories of HMO from the proposed scheme:

Section 257 HMOs where the building consists of self-contained flats where two-thirds (or more) of the flats are owner-occupied on long leases (over 21 years).

Section 257 HMOs where the building consists solely of two flats where the only communal area is a lobby or hallway on the ground floor level.

Section 257 HMO flats which have their own separate entrances and do not share any internal common parts, such as lobbies, hallways or landings.