Duties of the Manager of an HMO

Management Regulations

The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Wales) Regulations 2006 place specific duties on the manager of an HMO. Failure to comply with the regulations is a criminal offence, with unlimited fines on conviction.

This section highlights some critical duties in the regulations:

Duty to provide information to occupiers

You must provide the manager's name, address, and telephone number to each household in the HMO, and the same information must be displayed in a prominent position in the common parts of the HMO.

The manager is defined in section 263(3) of the Housing Act 2004 as _" In this Act "person managing" means, concerning premises, the person who, being an owner or lessee of the premises". It says it links to the person receiving the rent, even via the agent. It also says, " and includes, where those rents or other payments are received through another person as agent or trustee, that other person". This means both the landlord and agent fall into the description of being "the person managing" the HMO. This indicates you should include the details of the landlord and the agent on an agent-managed property.

Duty to take safety measures

  • means of escape from fire must be kept free of obstruction and kept in good order and repair
  • you must keep fire-fighting equipment, emergency lighting, and alarms in good working order
  • you must take all reasonable steps to protect occupiers from injury concerning the design of the HMO, its structural condition and the total number of occupiers. In particular, any unsafe roof or balcony must be made safe or all reasonable measures taken to prevent access. You must provide safeguards to protect occupiers where there are windows with sills at or near floor level.

Duty to maintain the water supply and drainage

  • these must be maintained in proper working order - in good repair and clean condition. Specifically, storage tanks must be effectively covered to prevent water contamination, and you should protect pipes from frost damage.

Duty to supply and maintain gas and electricity

  • these should not be unreasonably interrupted by the landlord or manager
  • all fixed electrical installations must be inspected and tested by a qualified engineer at least once every five years, and you must obtain a periodic inspection report. Note this is a separate but overlapping requirement to that now imposed on all properties, HMO or not, by the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016
  • in addition to any need to provide the test record to the occupiers, you must provide the latest gas safety record and electrical safety test results to the council within seven days of the council making a written request.

Duty to maintain common parts, fixtures, fittings and appliances

Common parts are defined, in addition to some specific clauses, as " any other part of an HMO the use of which is shared by two or more households living in the HMO". Therefore in a shared house situation, with multiple occupiers on a single agreement, any person has the right in the contract to access any part of the HMO making the whole property "common parts". 

The responsibility for common parts includes outside areas like gardens, yards, outbuildings, fences etc.

  • all common parts must be kept clean, safe, in good decorative repair and working order and free from obstruction
  • in particular, handrails and bannisters must be provided and maintained in good order, any stair coverings securely fixed, windows and other means of ventilation kept in good repair and adequate light fittings available at all times for every occupier to use
  • gardens, yards, outbuildings, boundary walls/fences, gates, etc., which are part of the HMO, should be safe, maintained in good repair, kept clean and present no danger to occupiers/ visitors
  • any part of the HMO that is not in use (including areas giving access) should be kept reasonably clean and free from refuse and litter.
  • any fixtures, fittings or appliances used in common by two or more households within the HMO must be maintained in good and safe repair and clean working order. But this doesn't apply if the occupier is entitled to remove the item or which is otherwise outside the control of the manager.

Duty to maintain living accommodation

The living accommodation is any part that is not shared with other households, for example, the bed-sitting room in a bedsit house. On a joint and several letting of the whole house, the entire dwelling will essentially be "common parts".

  • the internal structure, fixtures and fittings, including windows and other means of ventilation, should be kept clean, in good repair and in working order. Each room and all supplied furniture should be clean at the beginning of the occupation.

Duty to provide waste disposal facilities

  • no litter should be allowed to accumulate, except for that stored in bins provided in adequate numbers for the occupiers' requirements. Arrangements need to be made to dispose of litter regularly and refuse regarding the council's collection service.

Duties of Occupiers of HMOs

The regulations also place several duties upon the occupiers of an HMO.

These duties include:

  • not obstructing the manager in the performance of their duties
  • allowing the manager access to the accommodation at all reasonable times to carry out their duties
  • providing information to the manager who would be reasonably expected to enable them to carry out their duties
  • acting reasonably to avoid causing damage to anything, the manager is under an obligation to supply, maintain or repair
  • storing and disposing of litter and refuse as directed
  • complying with reasonable instructions from the manager about any fire escape, fire prevention measures and fire equipment.

If an occupier breaches their duties under the regulations, it is likely to put their agreement at risk, and the landlord/manager may be able to take legal action against them. Occupiers can also be prosecuted by the local authority and can be fined. The regulations impose duties on landlords, agents and occupiers, and all can be prosecuted and fined for breaching them.

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