28th April 2011 Councils all over UK ban shared rental properties Councils the length and spread of Britain are using a perfectly legal loophole in planning laws to prohibit private landlords turning their properties into small Houses in Multiple Occupations – six months ahead of the time when they will be needed most by small groups of sharers. According to different landlord bodies, Article 4 directions prohibiting HMOs are “popping up left, right and centre”. Landlords are being stymied by local authorities from attempting to offer a market solution to what homeless charities are warning could be a serious problem. Planned changes to the Shared Accommodation Rate kick in next January and will mean that an estimated 88,000 people in the 25 to 34 age range who are on housing benefit will have to seek shared HMO accommodation, virtually all of which would be in the private rented sector. From the New Year, changes to the rules mean that single people up to the age of 35 will no longer be able to live in their own self-contained rental flats. Instead, it will only cover shared accommodation. But landlords who are currently renting properties out to a single household will now have to seek planning permission in a growing number of towns if they want to let the same property out to between three, four or five people sharing. The Article 4 device was given to them as a perfectly legal cop-out by the Government. Local authorities which do not use Article 4 directions are assumed to have automatically permitted rental properties to be occupied by either one household or by up to six sharers. The current list of known local authorities using Article 4 directions to prevent HMOs, includes Oxford. Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, said: “The Government’s policy on housing for young people is wholly contradictory at present. “On the one hand the Government wishes to change housing benefit payments to encourage up to 88,000 young people into shared accommodation. On the other hand, local authorities up and down the country are increasingly blocking the provision of houses in multiple occupancy, without having a clue whether they need more shared homes or not. “Councils should at least be under some sort of obligation to do a proper assessment of supply and need before they start reaching for Article 4 directions,” said Mr. Fletcher.