Southampton City Council: It’s that time of year when university students return to their studies after the summer break and in university towns and cities up and down the country students are moving back into HMOs. In Southampton we have recently secured certificates of lawfulness for two such small HMOs. These certificates are important because like many university cities Southampton has adopted an Article 4 Direction to prevent the permitted development changing between Use Class C3 (regular dwellings) and Use Class C4 (small HMOs for up to 6 people).
These two cases were entirely unrelated however we happened to submit them on the same day and the two certificates were issued on the same day. The difference between the cases is worth noting and illustrates the principle of “balance of probabilities” on which the Council must assess the evidence for the use.
In the first case, our client had himself owned and let out the property for many years. As such he was able to provide a Statutory Declaration attesting to the HMO use over at least 10 years. He also got his neighbouring landlord and a long term tenant to do so as well. However, what he did not have was good paper records and so was unable to put together 10 years worth of tenancy agreements. Therefore we were entirely reliant on the Statutory Declarations.
In contrast in the second case, our client had fairly recently bought the property and so was unable to personally testify to the 10 years use. But luckily upon purchase the previous owner had given her a full set of tenancy agreements which added up to ten complete years use. So in this case we were entirely reliant on the paper records without any “witness statements”. In both cases the Council found that their own records (HMO licensing, Council Tax and electoral roll) did not contradict our evidence and thus concluded that on the balance of probabilities both properties had been in the HMO use for 10 years and thus lawful.
If you have a existing use which you are looking to confirm as being lawful, speak to Pure Town Planning about whether we think you have sufficient evidence to secure a certificate of lawfulness.