How to stop a neighbour converting a house into an HMO

The short answer

There is no single way to stop a neighbour converting a house into a shared home. What you can do depends on whether the council requires planning permission for the change, and on what its local policy says about houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). Where permission is needed, neighbours can comment on the application. Where it is not, there may be nothing to object to.

The difference comes down to a legal tool called an Article 4 Direction. As This is the Coast explained in its report on Scarborough, national legislation lets owners make certain changes of use without a formal planning application. An Article 4 Direction removes those permitted development rights, so developers must apply and the council must assess the proposal.

So the first step for anyone worried about an HMO next door is to ask the council two questions. Does an Article 4 Direction cover my street? And does the council have a policy limiting how many HMOs can cluster together? The answers decide whether the route for HMO planning permission objections in your area is open at all.

How HMO planning permission objections work in practice

Three recent local stories show how the system works from the neighbour’s side. They come from different councils with different rules, so none of them is a national template, but together they show what decision-makers actually weigh.

In County Durham, the council is moving towards an interim policy to stop too many HMOs bunching together. According to Landlord Today, it says further HMOs will not be allowed where any of the 10 nearest properties to the application site are already HMOs. It also says applications will not be approved where HMOs would make up more than 10% of residential properties within a 100-metre radius.

The Durham policy also rules out what it calls ‘sandwiching’, meaning a residential property lying between two HMOs, or between an HMO and a property that is not a home. The council’s current Article 4 Direction, which covers Durham City and its surrounding areas, was expected to expand to the whole county. From then, planning permission would be required to change any house into an HMO.

Consultation responses fed into the policy. A council statement said respondents highlighted ‘the loss of family housing, the increased strain and impact on local services, their fears and concerns over community safety, and the need for greater controls and oversight’. Those are the kinds of concerns residents raised when asked, and they are a useful guide to what a council has already accepted as relevant.

How to object to an HMO planning application

The sources do not set out consultation deadlines or the formal process, which vary by council, so check your local authority’s planning page for the application and its closing date. What they do show is which arguments carried weight when councillors made decisions. A strong objection is specific to the site and ties to the council’s own policy.

In Chorley, councillors refused a plan for a seven-bedroom HMO with a basement bedsit on Park Road, Astley, even though planning officers had recommended approval, according to Blog Preston. The bedrooms ranged from 6.81 to 12.96 square metres, against a minimum of 6.51 square metres for a single occupant. Councillors were unmoved by compliance with that minimum, and refused the plan unanimously.

Cllr Alex Hilton, the council’s cabinet member for planning and development, called the smallest room ‘cruel’. He told the meeting: ‘Imagine your entire life living in 6.81 meters squared – that is not acceptable.’ At the same meeting a retrospective application for a five-bed HMO on Eaves Lane was refused. A resident living next-door-but-one described ‘antisocial behaviour’ by occupants, including cannabis smoking and groups gathering at the front of the property.

Putting that together, a useful objection usually covers some or all of the following, each with evidence:

First, how many HMOs already stand nearby, set against the council’s concentration rules. Second, the size and quality of the rooms. Third, the effect on parking, which Chorley councillors cited in refusing Eaves Lane. Fourth, any problems you have personally experienced from a nearby HMO. Write to the council with facts rather than general dislike of shared housing.

What the rules look like in three areas

The tests differ from place to place, which is why it matters to read your own council’s policy. The table below sets out what the sources report for each area. Check with your council for the current status of any policy, as rules may have changed since these reports were published.

To see how a percentage rule might work, take a hypothetical street. Suppose 40 homes sit within 100 metres of a proposed HMO and four are already HMOs, which is exactly 10%. A fifth would take the share to 12.5%, above the Durham limit, on the assumption that the proposed property counts in the total. How a council counts is a detail to check in its policy.

When there is nothing to object to

Scarborough shows what happens without an Article 4 Direction. Town councillor William Stuart told North Yorkshire Council that 130 properties are on the register for the former Scarborough borough area, 115 of them (89%) in the town itself. Of those 115, he said, 61 house five or six people.

He said these properties ‘have been converted from ordinary residential use without requiring planning permission, and that route remains available for further conversions’. On one stretch of under 200 metres, he said, there are five HMOs, two next door to each other. ‘Only one needed planning permission, the other four have not required planning permission,’ he told the meeting.

North Yorkshire Council has not ruled out a direction. Cllr Liz Colling, chair of the Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee, said government guidance requires any Article 4 Direction to be supported by ‘robust evidence demonstrating that it is necessary and proportionate’. She said introducing one immediately ‘could expose the council to challenge’. In the meantime the council says it relies on housing licensing, planning enforcement and community safety work.

For a neighbour, this means that if your council has no direction, you cannot object to a conversion that never reaches the planning system. You can still raise concerns about safety or antisocial behaviour through licensing, enforcement and community safety teams, and you can press councillors to consider an Article 4 Direction, as Scarborough Town Council has done.

Key dates and what happens next

Several changes were under way or due according to reports from these councils. In Durham, councillors were expected to discuss the interim policy, and the wider Article 4 Direction was set to take wider effect. Check with the council whether the policy has since been adopted and when the direction came into force.

In Chorley, reports indicated that government-ordered changes would mean only the most significant planning proposals can be decided by councillors, with the rest decided solely by officers. HMOs would fall into the officer-decided group. This matters for objectors: if your council’s committee no longer sees HMO applications, your written objection becomes more important, because it may be read by an officer rather than debated in public. Submit it before the consultation closes and set out your points clearly and in writing.

In Scarborough, North Yorkshire Council said it was continuing to assess evidence from planning, licensing, housing, homelessness, community safety and police data. Check the council’s latest position on any Article 4 Direction.

Your questions answered

Can I stop an HMO if my council has no Article 4 Direction?

Possibly not through planning. Scarborough’s experience, as described by Cllr Stuart, is that conversions can go ahead without permission, so there is no application to object to. Licensing, enforcement and community safety teams may still be able to act on specific problems, as North Yorkshire Council says it does.

Does a room meeting minimum size standards guarantee approval?

No. The Chorley rooms exceeded the minimum of 6.51 square metres, and officers recommended approval, yet councillors refused the application unanimously over the impact on future occupants. A separate HMO licence, with its own assessment of space, would also have been required, according to the officers’ report.

Is a policy against sandwiching the same everywhere?

No. Durham, Scarborough’s earlier guidance and the forthcoming Central Lancashire Local Plan all include a version of it, but the distances and percentages differ. Read your council’s own policy, because the numbers decide whether a proposal complies.

What if the HMO is already running without permission?

Chorley councillors refused a retrospective application for a five-bed HMO on Eaves Lane after hearing from a neighbour about antisocial behaviour. The applicant’s agent said an HMO of that size would not have needed permission until a change in local regulations. Scarborough’s council says planning officers investigate allegations of unauthorised development.

Will councillors decide the application?

Not necessarily. Some councils have moved to officer-only decisions for lower-impact applications including HMOs. Ask your council who will make the decision on any application you wish to object to.