·         The definition of a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) was given in the Housing Act 2004

·         Mandatory licensing rules were brought in under the Licensing Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018.  This gave the requirement for a licence to be obtained for all properties with five or more occupants from two or more separate households, who shared a bathroom, toilet or kitchen

·         North Devon currently had 43 licensed HMO’s with an additional 250 now falling under the new regime

·         Of the five prescribed standards it was hoped to implement locally adopted standards

·         Heating; introduction of fixed heating sources with occupier controlled heating to a minimum of 21 degrees when the temperature outside was below zero

·         Personal washing facilities; to ensure a bathroom was not more than two storeys away  from a bedroom

·         Kitchen facilities; depending on whether the accommodation was a bedsit or shared house there were different standards such as the number of appliances and storage units available

·         Waste disposal; the licence holder would be required to provide appropriate external and internal waste storage facilities

·         Due to the volume of applications for licences and the resource implications in processing these the licence period renewal would remain at five years

·         With authorisation from the Committee a six week consultation period would be carried out seeking stakeholders views on the proposals

·         The analysed results would be presented at the July 2021 meeting