Property management · HMO specialists · Leeds and York
Planning permission for HMOs
Almost all of York has been covered by an Article 4 direction since 2012. In practice that means you cannot turn a family home into a shared house without planning permission, and permission is not a formality. We tell you whether a property will get it before you commit, and we make the application if it will.
Why York is different
Outside an Article 4 area, a landlord can let a house to three, four or five sharers without asking anyone. York removed that right across the city in 2012. Any change from a family home to a small shared house now needs a full planning application, and the council assesses how many shared houses are already in the surrounding streets before it decides.
Leeds works differently, and this is where investors most often get caught out. Leeds has Article 4 too, but it covers the student belt rather than the whole city. A conversion in one postcode can need permission while an almost identical house a few miles away does not. We check which side of the line a property falls on before you offer on it.
Already letting as an HMO without permission
A lot of York houses have been let as shared houses for years without anyone applying for planning permission. Sometimes the owner did not know it was needed. More often it was bought that way and nobody checked.
If the use has been continuous for long enough, it can be regularised with a certificate of lawfulness. That is not a planning application and it is not judged on whether the council would grant permission today — it turns on evidence that the use is already established. Getting one closes the question for good, which matters when you come to refinance, renew a licence, or sell.
If you are not sure where a property stands, ask. We would rather look at it now than after a lender's solicitor raises it.
What we assess
Two things decide an application. The first is density — how many shared houses are already in the neighbourhood and in the immediate street. The second is whether the house itself meets the council's policy tests.
There are four of those tests:
- Adequate living accommodation
- Bin storage
- Cycle storage
- Parking
We run both parts of the assessment and come back with a straight answer: yes, no, or what would have to change. A no is worth as much as a yes when it stops you buying a house that will never be licensable.
Fees
Planning assessment, before you buy
Certificate of lawfulness application
HMO change of use planning application
The council's own application fee is payable in addition and goes straight to the council. If you go on to make an application with us, the £250 assessment fee comes off it.
We are currently not VAT registered.
Our track record
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Talk to us about a property
Send us the address and what you are planning to do with it. We will tell you what we think before you spend anything.