Anthony Gold

Get in touch

020 7940 4060

  • People
  • Insights
  • What to Expect
  • Contact Us
Anthony Gold
  • Services
    • Housing And Property Disputes
      • Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Services For Commercial Landlords, Tenants And Agents
      • Services For Residential Landlords And Agents
      • Housing And Tenancy Issues
      • Judicial Review
    • Injury And Medical Claims
      • Life Changing Injuries
      • Medical Claims
      • Personal Injury
      • Child Abuse
    • Family And Relationships
      • Starting Relationships
      • Ending Relationships
      • After Relationships End
      • Useful Contacts
      • Religious & Cultural Issues
      • Family Law FAQs
      • Family Dispute Resolution
      • Modern Families And Surrogacy Arrangements
    • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
      • Business Agreements
      • Business Disagreements
      • Commercial Property
      • Commercial Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Residential Property
    • Wills, Estates & Court Of Protection
      • Wills, Trusts And Estates
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Capacity And Court Of Protection
    • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
      • Personal Claims
      • Professional Negligence
      • Business Disagreements
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Employment
    • People
    • Insights
    • What to Expect
    • Contact Us
  • Get in touch

    020 7940 4060

  • Housing and Property Disputes
  • Injury and Medical Claims
  • Family and Relationships
  • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
  • Wills, Estates & Court of Protection
  • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
  • Property disputes
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Challenging the decisions of councils and public bodies
  • Rights of way, boundaries, covenants and easements
  • Party wall disputes
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Services for commercial landlords, tenants and agents
  • Breach of covenant
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Lease renewals
  • Services for residential landlords and agents
  • Regulatory issues
  • Repossession
  • Agents (including letting agreements)
  • Housing and tenancy issues
  • Repairs
  • Repossession and eviction
  • Rehousing and homelessness
  • Judicial review
  • Life changing injuries
  • Brain injury
  • Spinal cord injury
  • Amputation
  • Psychiatric injury
  • Fatal injuries and inquests
  • Medical claims
  • Surgical claims
  • Non-Surgical Claims
  • Birth injury
  • Child health and paediatrics
  • GP and primary care treatment
  • Private healthcare
  • Personal injury
  • Road traffic accidents
  • Accidents abroad
  • Accidents at work
  • Faulty products
  • Public liability and other accidents
  • Child abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Starting relationships
  • Pre nuptial agreements
  • Pre civil partnership and same sex relationship agreements
  • Cohabitation and living together agreements
  • Property ownership agreements
  • Ending relationships
  • Divorce and separation
  • Ending a civil partnership
  • Ending cohabitation
  • Agreeing child arrangements
  • Agreeing finance and assets
  • International arrangements
  • After relationships end
  • Abduction and leave to remove children
  • Changing and challenging parenting agreements
  • Changing and challenging financial agreements
  • Grandparents’ rights
  • Useful Contacts
  • Financial planners
  • Referral to Pension Actuaries and Pension on Divorce Experts (PODEs)
  • Tax Specialists
  • Financial Neutrals
  • Counselling
  • Conveyancing
  • Wills
  • Religious & cultural issues
  • Jewish family law
  • Islamic family law
  • Family Law FAQs
  • Children FAQs
  • Cohabitation Agreement FAQs
  • No-Fault Divorce and Separation FAQs
  • Financial Issues FAQs
  • Pre-Marital Contracts FAQs
  • Family Dispute Resolution
  • Roundtable Meetings
  • One Solicitor Solution
  • Mediation
  • Collaborative Practice
  • Arbitration
  • Second Opinions
  • Private FDR’s
  • Early Neutral Evaluation (‘ENE’)
  • Modern Families and Surrogacy Arrangements
  • Domestic Surrogacy
  • International Surrogacy
  • Business agreements
  • Business advice
  • Employment
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Supplier contracts
  • Business disagreements
  • Commercial property
  • Commercial Sale and Purchases
  • Commercial loans and mortgages
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Commercial advice for landlords and tenants
  • Planning advice
  • Mortgage debentures and securities
  • Commercial property disputes
  • Breach of covenant
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Lease renewals
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Residential property
  • Residential Sale and Purchases
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Remortgages
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Ownership matters and transfers
  • Wills, trusts and estates
  • Making a will
  • Applying for probate
  • Distributing the estate
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Trust advice
  • Tax planning and advice
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Appointing a deputy
  • Removing a deputy
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Gifts and legacies
  • Managing assets under a deputyship
  • Care issues
  • Removing lasting and enduring power of attorney
  • Special educational needs
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Personal claims
  • Debt recovery
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Building disputes
  • Professional negligence
  • Professional Negligence
  • Property Fraud
  • Investment Fraud
  • Business disagreements
  • Building disputes
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Claims against directors
  • Contract disputes
  • Debt recovery
  • Directors personal liabilities
  • Employment
  • Professional negligence
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Employment
  • Employment
  • Unfair or Wrongful Dismissal
  • Settlement Agreements
Anthony Gold > Blog > HMO law in practice: Unmarried partners in shared accommodation

Robin Stewart

robin.stewart@anthonygold.co.uk

Share
  • September 9, 2021
  • Blog
  • By  Robin Stewart 
  • 0 comments

HMO law in practice: Unmarried partners in shared accommodation


One of the benefits of providing legal training is the questions course delegates will ask – questions which experienced practitioners might not think to ask.

During the pandemic I have been presenting online courses for MBL seminars (most recently on HMOs and Property Licensing), as well as delivering some bespoke webinars for agents, housing advisers, and trading standards officers. One question which has been raised more than by once by delegates is whether or not couples living in shared accommodation will always count as one household for the purposes of HMO law. This topic always leads to an interesting discussion because while the legal definition of a ‘household’ can be explained fairly quickly, real life relationships are not so easily classified.

For landlords and agents, this is not merely an interesting abstract issue – the case study I mention below is not a hypothetic question from one of my delegates, it a real situation which was dealt with by the Property Ombudsman.

What is a household?

A property occupied by just two individuals is never a house in multiple occupation (“HMO”), so a couple living together cannot be an HMO. However, if there are more than two people living in the property and the occupiers are more than one household, the property will be an HMO.

For the purposes of HMO and property licensing law in England, the term ‘household’ is defined at section 258 of the Housing Act 2004 and the Licensing and Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation and Other Houses (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/373.

Essentially, two people are in the same household if they are in the same family or one is occupied as a live-in carer (or similar domestic role). Couples can count as family whether formally married or not, and where two people are not related to each other, they will count as being in the same family if one is related to one member of a couple and the other is related to the other.

A ‘couple’ means, according to section 258, persons who are in a civil partnership or are married to each other or are living together as if they are civil partners or a married couple. This is a definition which invites bad jokes about what it means to live together as a married couple – the Act does not offer any further explanation about what this phrase means.

Living together as a married couple

At first it seems obvious what living together as a married couple or as civil partners is intended to mean – unmarried partners living together in a durable relationship are almost certainly living together as a married couple – even if they consider their relationship to have a difference nature from marriage or civil partnership.

There is no case authorities directly addressing the definition of couple in the Housing Act 2004, but in other areas of law there has been more attention from the courts about the nature of relationships ‘akin to marriage’.

In immigration law, there are several routes to qualifying for rights to enter or remain in the UK on the basis of a relationship with an unmarried partner. In Fetle (Partners: two year requirement) [2014] UKUT 00267 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal adopted a broad interpretation of a rule required evidence of the partners “living together in a relationship akin to either a marriage or a civil partnership which has subsisted for two years or more”. The Tribunal accepted that the two years could include periods when then couple lived apart – demonstrating that the concept of living together as a married couple or civil partners is flexible, and not necessarily tied to traditional ideas of what marriage looks.

Government policy guidance to decision makers for social security entitlement gives detailed advice on how to determine whether or not a couple are living together as married couple (“LTAMC”). The guidance is a fascinating document which attempts to distil the nature of marriage; at points it has a rather poetic quality, but this is juxtaposed with the clinical precision of guidance drafted by bureaucrats:

“To be treated as LTAMC the relationship has to be the same as that of a married couple. Marriage is where two people join together with the intention of sharing the rest of their lives. There is no single template of what the relationship of a married couple is. It is a stable partnership, not just based on economic dependency but also an emotional relationship of lifetime commitment rather than one of convenience, friendship, companionship or the living together of lovers. If the evidence does not suggest that it is more likely than not that the relationship between two people has the particular emotional quality that characterizes a married couple’s partnership, the DM should find that they are not LTAMC.”

Crucially, that guidance considers the intention that the relationship be long term is fundamental: “two people who are LTAMC would be expected to have the intention of sharing their lives together in the long term”.

This is Government guidance for benefits decision makers, not commentary on the Housing Act, but I do think it demonstrates well that the concept of ‘living together as a married couple or civil partnership’ is complex and open to different interpretations.

Non-traditional domestic arrangements

The Property Ombudsman, one of the two redress schemes available to landlords and agents, recently published a case study about a polyamorous ‘throuple’ who were refused accommodation by agents who told them that the local authority would treat them as forming more than one household, making the property an HMO, and that this would not be allowed at that property.

The ombudsman made no criticism of the agent’s advice that the tenants would not have been treated as a single household (although no view on the issue was provided). The ombudsman was critical of the unprofessional tone of some communication with the prospective tenants, and supported that part of the complaint, while making no financial award.

This was an interesting case study, and agents are quite like to start to encounter this sort of issue slightly more often. The TPO’s case study does not attempt to offer any legal analysis, and we may be waiting some time for any authoritative case law on the how to apply the Housing Act’s concept of ‘household’ to polyamorous groupings.

The authors of the Government benefit guidance take the view that persons living together in a non-monogamous relationship will not be living together as a married couple because exclusivity is a key element of marriage. That conclusion will not be universally accepted, and in any case, this is guidance from another area of law.

The Housing Act definitions do not recognise any category of ‘throuple’ – ‘couple’ is expressly defined at section 258(4)(a) as being two people. However, the Act does not expressly say whether a particular individual can be a member of two couples simultaneously. Section 258 can be interpreted in different ways, but if it is possible to be a member of more than one couple, the members of the ‘throuple’, and any relatives of those persons, might be regarded as members of the same family, and hence one household.

What should agents do about this?

The only part of the complaint upheld by the Property Ombudsman related to customer service – agents are a frontline service dealing with the public, and they should remain professional even when confronted by lifestyles they find unusual or surprising.

Where unusual issues like this arise, the standard legal helplines not likely to be able to assist and more specialist assistance will be required. Anthony Gold Solicitors is one of the firms which participates in the Landlord Law HMO Hotline Service which provides a quick route to specialist advice on any HMO issues.

Where prospective tenants state that they are one household, agents should ensure that they understand what the relationships are, and then record this in writing. If there are ‘red flags’ suggesting that the tenants’ relationships might not be as claimed, it is very risky to ignore this. However, agents must also be mindful of their duties not to unlawfully discriminate while they conduct any investigations.

*Disclaimer: The information on the Anthony Gold website is for general information only and reflects the position at the date of publication. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be treated as such. It is provided without any representations or warranties, express or implied.*

Robin Stewart

robin.stewart@anthonygold.co.uk

Get in touch

Call, email or use a contact form – whichever suits you. We’ll let you know the best person to help you get started.

Call or Email

020 7940 4060

mail@anthonygold.co.uk

No comments

Add your comment

We need your name and email address to make sure you’re a real person. We won’t share your email address with anyone else or send you spam. Please complete fields marked with *.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

code

Related Services

  • Cohabitation Agreement FAQs

  • Ownership disputes and shares in property

  • Pre-Marital Contracts FAQs

  • Cohabitation and living together agreements

  • Ownership disputes and shares in property

  • Property ownership agreements

  • Ownership matters and transfers

About the author

  • Robin Stewart

Meet the team

  • Housing and Property Disputes

You might also like...

  • Property litigation in the criminal courts: Parker v Financial Conduct Authority & Anor [2021] EWCA Crim 956

  • Can a rent repayment order be paid in instalments?

  • Blanket bans on pets in rented properties

Contact Us

Request a Call Back

About Us

  • Accessibility
  • Compliance
  • Responsible Business
  • Equality & Diversity
  • History
  • Our Beliefs
  • List of LLP members

Careers

  • Trainee Solicitors
  • Vacancies

Social Media

  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • View our YouTube channel

Online Payments

  • Payment page through Worldpay

Accredited by

Lexel Parctice
76000Award

Copyright © Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC433560 and is authorised and regulated by the by the Solicitors Regulation Authority with registration Number 810601