HMOs and Asylum Seekers

The government is planning to change the rules on HMOs slightly to mean that asylum seeker accommodation is outside the HMO regime. It has published a draft regulation to do this which is likely to be in force in the next month or so. This will only apply in England and, as others have commented, I do not see the Welsh government doing anything similar.

Currently, there are a series of exceptions to HMO rules set out in Schedule 14 of the Housing Act 2004. If a property falls within one of the exceptions it is not an HMO at all, regardless of usage. The government has not however, chosen to add to this list. Nor has it used the power to make regulations which control who is classed as occupying a property as their main home, even though some of those regulations actually deal with asylum seekers. 

Instead the government has altered the main definition of an HMO itself. This is contained in s254, Housing Act 2004 and is the core part of the legislation which controls whether or not a property is an HMO. Unsurprisingly, it gets argued about a fair bit! This definition can be changed by regulations but the intent was more to allow for changes in the definition of an HMO rather than for it to be used for specific exemptions. 

The government is seeking to amend the s254 definition to create an exemption for accommodation provided by way of an agreement with the Home Secretary for people being accommodated under s4, 85, or 97 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. This is slightly odd as s95 emergency accommodation was definitely within the scope of HMOs before. The regulations I mention above specifically bring this accommodation within scope. However, the amendment to the underlying Act will trump this and move that accommodation out of scope again and also add further types of accommodation to this.

Naturally the government is doing this to make it easier for them to house asylum seekers in whatever accommodation they can find. It will also mean that some accommodation providers are likely to look to contract to provide lower standard accommodation to the Home Office rather than improving it and making it suitable for renting through the more usual HMO licensing route. 

The change is time limited and expires on 1 July 2026. It remains to be seen how useful this actually is or whether it is simply a means of reducing standards for asylum seekers to benefit the government.