Part 7Supplementary and final provisions

Meaning of “house in multiple occupation”

I1258HMOs: persons not forming a single household

1

This section sets out when persons are to be regarded as not forming a single household for the purposes of section 254.

2

Persons are to be regarded as not forming a single household unless—

a

they are all members of the same family, or

b

their circumstances are circumstances of a description specified for the purposes of this section in regulations made by the appropriate national authority.

3

For the purposes of subsection (2)(a) a person is a member of the same family as another person if—

a

those persons are married to F1, or civil partners of, each other or live together as if they were a married couple or civil partners;

b

one of them is a relative of the other; or

c

one of them is, or is a relative of, one member of a couple and the other is a relative of the other member of the couple.

4

For those purposes—

a

a “couple” means two persons who F2... fall within subsection (3)(a);

b

“relative” means parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece or cousin;

c

a relationship of the half-blood shall be treated as a relationship of the whole blood; and

d

the stepchild of a person shall be treated as his child.

5

Regulations under subsection (2)(b) may, in particular, secure that a group of persons are to be regarded as forming a single household only where (as the regulations may require) each member of the group has a prescribed relationship, or at least one of a number of prescribed relationships, to any one or more of the others.

6

In subsection (5) “prescribed relationship” means any relationship of a description specified in the regulations.