While licence requirements for HMOs were introduced over four months ago, the majority of brokers still felt the rules need to be clarified. Of the 202 questioned, only 15 per cent believed the regulations did not need changing.
With licences reported to vary between £150 and £1,750 across the UK, depending on the local authority, fears have risen over the consistency and complexity of the scheme.
Mehrdad Yousefi, head of intermediaries for Alliance & Leicester, commented: “Brokers emphatically feel that there should be greater transparency in HMO regulations and I agree. Local authorities could go some way to help by providing guidelines to assist landlords in navigating their way through what can be a highly complex set of regulations.”
But the concern was not shared by all. Bill Warren, director of Complete Mortgage and Loans Service, felt the regulations were clear enough. “HMO regulation hasn’t really been given the prominence other topics have, so it is not understood properly. But I think if people take the time to read the regulations, it is quite clear. People don’t understand the implications of it, but this is not just a lender problem and brokers have to raise the issues with clients.”
