Houses in Multiple Occupation
Updated: 18 May 2013
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Sharing rented accommodation with friends or fellow students and workers is a good way to keep your rent and other bills down.
But Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) need high safety standards as there are greater risks involved. For example, people frequently lock the doors of their rooms in shared accommodation, so there is an increased risk in case of a fire.
Finding registered accommodation
We recommend that students and their parents should try to find registered accommodation as a first preference.You can find help and advice on the Studentpad website.
In order to make sure that safety standards are adhered to, we ask landlords to register properties which are being rented out to multiple occupants. Not all HMOs need to be registered. To find out whether your property needs to be registered, please read our definition of relevant HMOs.
In some places where there are a lot of HMOs, particularly near the universities, we have identified “Action Areas”. If your HMO is in that area, then it must be registered. If you live in a house with multiple occupants, find out more about what the certificate should cover.
If you are a landlord and you rent out HMOs, find out what you need to do to get certification and what your responsibilities are.
You can download a number of publications from this site, including:
- a good practice guide for landlords (
108 KB) - the Statutory Registration Scheme report ( 706 KB)
- a fire safety guide ( 883 KB)
- A guide to the minimum standards required in a HMO ( 286 KB)
- The HMO Strategy 2009 ( 645 KB)
A list of registered properties is available from our HMO offices.
