Broadly, houses in multiple occupation (HMO) are houses, hostels, self-contained flats or other buildings that are occupied by persons that do not form a single household, where there is a degree of sharing of facilities, for example for cooking, or where the housing lacks such facilities, or is not self-contained. The legal definition is more complex and provides for the exception of certain buildings from the basic definition.
The risk of death or injury from the outbreak of fire in HMOs is up to ten times higher than with single family occupation. St Edmundsbury Borough Council's Environmental Health team inspects these properties to ensure that they meet an acceptable safety standard and to ensure that they meet reasonable standard for amenities, repair and proper management.
St Edmundsbury Borough Council has adopted a new HMO Strategy (PDF 137KB), which sets out our objectives and includes our adopted amenity standards, HMO inspection programme and joint protocol with Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service.
