Residents’ petition turned down as inspector supports Milton Keynes HMO landlord

Milton Keynes Council slapped an enforcement notice on Mike Johnson in February 2019, to stop the use of a three-storey house in Rowton Heath, Oakhill, as a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

But planning inspector David Brier quashed the council’s enforcement notice after deciding that the house was “probably” being used as an HMO since 2006.

“On the balance of probability,” he said in his decision letter on April 29, “at the time the enforcement notice was issued, it was too late to take enforcement action.”

Mr Brier said he had received a petition signed by residents objecting to the use of the house as an HMO and referring to its “perceived effects.”

“Although the points raised are not to be set aside lightly,” he said, “they essentially concern the planning merits of the use.”

He added: “Regardless of the validity or otherwise of the concerns voiced, they do not bear upon the considerations involved in the appeal before me and I shall refrain from commenting on them.”

The appeal was made on three grounds and Mr Johnson and his agent, Amanda Brown, only had to win one of them to be successful.

The council had granted the property an HMO licence for six people in 2010, and renewed it in January 2016.

But because planning and HMO licensing are different issues, the council based its case on the fact it had refused planning permission for a seven-bed property in 2010.

They said that an HMO with seven rooms – instead of six under its licence – would have meant it classifies as “unauthorised use” under planning law. This would have meant that it was not immune from enforcement action.

Spotting flaws in the council’s case, Mr Brier said: “While I can understand why the council has arrived at their conclusions, I have reservations about the soundness of the approach taken in this instance.”

He said the council had referred to seven rooms when it “seems to have been no more than a proposal”.

He added that: “In particular, there is nothing to indicate the property has ever been occupied by more than six individuals or that seven rooms have ever been made available to let.”

He wasn’t satisfied that the 2010 planning application provides a “reliable, robust or weighty basis” for concluding that there was either a break in the use as an HMO or the start of a new planning chapter in the property’s history.

> This appeal decision was the first to be made in MIlton Keynes under the Planning Inspectorate’s covid-19 travel restrictions. The inspector did not visit the site, and did not receive any objections to his approach.