Houses in Multiple Occupation

The government defines a bedsit as a single unit within a home where someone is renting a room. This tenant also shares other facilities with people living in the same building, like a kitchen and bathroom.

Where a building or part of a building has been converted into, or is wholly, self-contained flats, it will be an HMO if:

• the standard of the conversion doesn't meet that required by the Building Regulations 1991 or 2000 (whichever applied at the time of conversion), and
• fewer than two-thirds of the flats are owner-occupied. For example, those with a lease of over 21 years, freehold owners in the converted block of flats or member of the owner's household.

For further information see Section 257 of the Housing Act 2004.