Thread by @Andrewwood17

Problems with Homes of Multiple Occupation (HMO) & why a man died due to Council inaction
A man died earlier this month in a flat fire, had the Council been more proactive and responsive he might still be alive but an attempt to get them to do so in January 2021 was rejected
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https://twitter.com/Andrewwood17/status/1635032757104705540

18 people, primarily students and delivery couriers from Bangladesh, lived in a 2-bedroom former Council flat at the time of the fire, 22 beds were seen in the property including in the kitchen (mainly bunk beds)
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The owner had bought the leasehold flat in 2005 but the freeholder was Tower Hamlets Council and the managing agent Tower Hamlets Homes, their arm's length management agency
Neighbours made complaints about number of people & leaks from the bathroom in late 2021 and 2022
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In August 2022 the landlord (also the owner) got an HMO 'Additional Licensing Scheme' paid £550 for a 5 year license to have between 3 & 5 people from 2 or more households living in property
Had they had more than 5 people they would need to pay £569 for a Mandatory License
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So here was 2nd failure (after not responding to the initial complaints) to realise that the owner had applied for the wrong & smaller license.
Interestingly Hammersmith Fulham Council do NOT allow HMO's where they are the freeholder in part due to fire risks
@TarlingWestTRA
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Link to their webpage as evidence lbhf.gov.uk/housing/privat…
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In January 2021 @going4golds & I introduced a motion to discuss some of these issues and attempt to tighten up and improve the rules around HMO's, for example making it much easier to search the public HMO register to spot multiple landlords etc
democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/s178…
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The Labour group saw this as an attack on renters (rather an attempt to improve standards (we copied ideas from other Labour Councils)) and gutted the motion so that it had no impact (see some of the cross-outs)
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4 Labour Councillors declared that they or their partners held HMO licenses or were considering applying
One other said they had an interest and we know several other Cllrs were landlords (but not necessarily of HMOs)
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We have some houses which were built as 4 bedrooms and now have 6 or 7 bedrooms
And if you extend the roof that could make 8+ bedrooms and they are usually advertised as double beds so you could have up to 16 adults legitimately in a house designed for 2 adults and 2 kids
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See Council guidance on HMO's, can you spot the 3 public lists of HMO properties?
how long would it take you to work out whether you lived in one or not, and who the official landlord is?
or how big some landlords are?
towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/housing/H…
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Will @AspireParty & @LutfurRahmanTH be more pro-active in protecting HMO residents, and family homes and encourage more purpose-built student and shared accommodation?
Will they use our legal powers & the fit and proper person test to drive out bad landlords?
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If you live in an HMO (or are not sure) and want to raise an issue with the Council about safety etc, here are their contacts
Telephone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Or get in contact with me by private message
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See BBC report 1 minutes 10 seconds in bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod…