Part 7

Supplementary and final provisions

Meaning of “house in multiple occupation”

HMOs: persons not forming a single household
258
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 , 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 ... 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.
S. 258 wholly in force at 18.1.2005; s. 258 in force for certain purposes at Royal Assent and in force otherwise at 18.1.2005, see s. 270(2)(b)(3)(a)
Words in s. 258(3)(a) substituted (2.12.2019) by The Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/1458), reg. 1(2), Sch. 3 para. 26(4)(a)
Words in s. 258(4)(a) omitted (2.12.2019) by virtue of The Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/1458), reg. 1(2), Sch. 3 para. 26(4)(b)