Boston Council has just three houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) on the public register of licences granted.
Unofficially, one councillor, Paul Gleeson, reckons the real figure is likely to be around 600 shared houses.
The council says the legal definition of an HMO requiring mandatory licensing does not cover all shared homes in the borough.
Well, it wouldn’t because the Housing Act definition of an HMO covers homes shared by five or more unrelated tenants or homes of over three or more floors.
The council wants to know how many other shared houses are in the town – that definition would include homes shared by three to five unrelated tenants.
These homes do not need an HMO licence unless the local council has taken on an Article 4 direction under the Town and Country Planning Act or additional HMO licensing under the Housing Act.
So, the council has earmarked £140,000 to open a consultation with a view to taking on an Article 4 direction.
The direction will require all HMOs to register for a licence.
Councillor Mike Gilbert, portfolio holder for housing, said: “The purpose of licensing is to ensure that the properties are correctly managed providing decent homes. Any issues adversely affecting the neighbourhood arising from HMOs will be firmly and effectively reduced.”
What the council has not pointed out is there cannot be any properties that are not properly managed or causing other problems.
If there were, surely the council would know about them and would have an idea of the number of registered HMOs, unregistered HMOs triggering complaints and an estimate of the number of other HMOs in the area?
Councillor Gleeson says Boston has similar issues to many university towns – a large population of young men who flock to pubs and bars at the weekend.
“If a problem is caused by students we would go to the university and have a word. We have got no-one to go to at the moment,” he said.
