Publicising of Article 4 Direction Relating to Houses in Multiple Occupation

MLAS

Birmingham City Council has made a decision to introduce a city-wide Article 4 Direction, which will require planning applications to be submitted for proposals to convert family houses (C3 use class) to small Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) accommodating between 3 and 6 people (C4 use class).

The City Council is now commencing a 6-week period to publicise the city-wide direction from Thursday 6 June 2019.

An existing Article 4 Direction for the same purpose is currently in place covering parts of Selly Oak, Harborne and Edgbaston. To avoid duplication in coverage this existing direction will be cancelled, but to ensure that there is no gap in coverage the cancellation will only happen on the same day that the new city-wide direction will come in to force.

The Council is inviting public comments as part of this publicity period. These will be taken in to account when the direction is confirmed later this year. Following confirmation, the direction will come in to force on Monday 18 June 2020. The closing date for comments to be submitted on the direction is Thursday 18 July 2019.

If you are the landlord of an existing small HMO, we are asking that you declare this to us and provide details of the address of the property and any evidence to show that it is in an HMO use. This will ensure that we have as much information as possible about existing HMOs in the city before the Article 4 Direction becomes enforceable.

You can find out more about the direction on the Council’s website at www.birmingham.gov.uk/hmoarticle4

Any comments and evidence about existing HMOs can be submitted via: