Correspondence

Council Tax information letter 3/2023: Changes to regulations for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

Published 8 November 2023

Applies to England

To: Local authorities in England - For the attention of the Council Tax section

From: Local Taxation Division, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (council.tax@levellingup.gov.uk)

Date: 8 November 2023

Changes to regulations for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) 

This letter summarises the provisions of the Council Tax (Chargeable Dwellings and Liability for Owners) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 (“the Regulations”) which were laid before Parliament on 8 November 2023 and come into force on 1 December 2023. See the Regulations and Explanatory Memorandum. 

The regulations will ensure that HMOs will be treated as a single dwelling for the purposes of council tax in England. They will also ensure that council tax liability rests with the landlords of HMOs covered by the regulations. This follows the government’s response to the consultation on changes to the council tax valuation of HMOs. 

The regulations adopt broadly the same definition of HMOs as that set out in section 254 of the Housing Act 2004. Schedule 14 of the Housing Act sets out a series of exemptions from the definition of HMOs for licensing and other purposes. The government does not consider that these exemptions are appropriate in the context of council tax valuation, and these exemptions have not therefore been carried over into the new regulations. Self-contained flats which are covered by section 257 of the Housing Act are and therefore subject to HMO licensing are excluded from the scope of these regulations as the government considers that such flats should normally have their own council tax band. 

For licensed HMOs, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) intends to proactively re-band HMOs that are currently not aggregated to a single property and therefore have multiple council tax bands. In order to identify affected HMOs, the VOA requires the information set out at Annex A from councils. The VOA has written to councils regarding the required information, together with the appropriate format and the Department would be very grateful if you could assist the VOA in a timely manner.  

Should you have any queries about the Regulations, please contact the Department at: council.tax@levellingup.gov.uk.  

Annex A 

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is responsible for valuing domestic properties, including HMOs, for council tax. To begin the process of aggregating HMOs into one council tax band, the VOA require the following information in excel format about licensed HMOs under your local authority: 

• UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number – not property number) 
• Address 
• Postcode 
• Number of households (not people) 
• Licensing details (such as s257, statutory or additional license) 
• Named point of contact at local authority, and their contact details 
• Licensee’s name, address and contact details 

To return your completed spreadsheet, please use one of the following options: 

• Password protected email. Emails should be sent to ctnationalassuranceinbox@voa.gov.uk. Please use ‘HMO Regulation Change’ as the subject line. 
• Secure Data Exchange Service (SDES). 

Any questions about this email, or the information you’ve been asked to provide, should be sent to ctnationalassuranceinbox@voa.gov.uk under the subject line ‘HMO Regulation Change’.