Developer hits out at Council over license payment

A Rochdale resident who has developed a block of apartments on Whitworth Road has spoken out against the Council as they plan to make him pay a license fee after deeming the development to be a ‘House in Multiple Occupancy’.

Andrew Abrahams developed the block of luxury flats and the residents there pay separate Council tax and separate bills and do not share any facilities. Despite this the Council says that the development should be designated as a single house with multiple occupants, increasing Mr Abrahams’ costs to the Council.

A spokesman for the Council said: “Generally speaking, a property comprising several self-contained apartments is classed as an HMO (House in Multiple Occupancy) where it lacks some of the requirements of building regulations introduced in the early 90s. These relate mainly to fire compartmentation and acoustic separation between the apartments and onto common areas such as the central staircase and basement. Only properties converted in keeping with those regulations – and with the relevant certification - are considered adequate to qualify as fully self-contained apartments, so aren’t then subject to HMO licensing.”

But Mr Abrahams says that following a meeting with the Council in which they advised him of the required building standards, he paid to have the development brought up to standard so that the apartments could be classified as self-contained.

He said: “I was told by the Council that if the property was not to be classified as a house in multiple occupancy it would have to comply with certain regulations which were brought in in 1991. I employed an architect to make sure these regulations were met. He said that everything was in order but that I didn’t have sound proofing, a modern fire alarm and emergency lighting. I paid around £7,000 to have these put in.

“I then got in touch with the Council’s Strategic Housing department and two of their representatives came to see my property. They told me that they can’t retrospectively say that the apartments are fully self-contained, it has to qualify from the start, so in other words the Council has advised me to employ an architect and bring the building up to standard and then told me that I shouldn’t have bothered employing him in the first place because it was too late.

“This is a stealth tax. There are four separate apartments in the block and each resident pays their own council tax and water rates and so on. To make things worse the Council tells me what to do and then deny it anyway.”

The leader of Rochdale’s Labour group Councillor Colin Lambert said that he had spoken with Mr Abrahams today (Wednesday 28 October) and would be taking his case up with the Council’s Chief Executive Roger Ellis.

He said: “There appears to be two major issues here. Firstly the regulations as applied by the council would make it seem they collect tax twice for the same property.

“The second issue appears to be that the same council has demanded work be done, advised on what work should be done and recommended who should do it, then, the council appears to state it makes no difference to the applying of the rules.

“Does this council know what each of its departments are doing and what advice is being given to council tax payers?”

A Council spokesperson said the Council would happily discuss Mr Abraham’s concerns in person but would not comment on an individual case in the media.