Seven-bedroom shared house plan for family home in Great Oakley
An end-of-terrace family home in Great Oakley could become an HMO for seven adults.
Property developers want to turn the house in Frith Close into a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).
The three-storey end-terrace property currently has an existing single tenant, but the owners are looking to maximise profit and convert the home for seven adults.
It would have shared a shared kitchen and bathrooms. The garage would be converted into a single bedroom and the current living room modified to form two bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms are only a few centimetres bigger than the national minimum room size of 6.51 square metres.
The applicant, Essex-based Poseday Property Solutions states that the four-bed house could easily have a family of between four and seven people living in it and therefore the impact on the neighbouring properties of housing seven adults ‘is unlikely to be discernible in terms of noise and disturbance when compared at full capacity.’
Planning documents continue “Therefore, it is considered that the impact on the quiet character of the area in Frith Close and the immediate environment is likely to be neutral.”
There is only only one existing parking space, although the applicant proposes to add an extra one at the front of the property. Parking in the street is already at a premium – with cars parked on grassed areas when our reporter visited the area.
Local council standards say there should be one space provided for each bedroom, or if not there should be a parking survey to identify any issues.
The survey undertaken by the developer showed that Frith Close was consistently over-capacity.
Plans were submitted to North Northamptonshire Council two weeks ago and there have already been three objections from locals. They centre around parking and noise. One local resident said: “Parking in this area is a huge challenge every day especially when the houses have more than one vehicle.”
Another said: “This area houses many families with young children who have chosen the area due to its current structure.
"The safety of children who play in the area could be compromised due to the extra traffic and inappropriate parking.”
In April a successful campaign by this newspaper saw an Article 4 direction imposed on a large part of Corby, which includes the Kingswood, Hazel Leys and Exeter estates. Our award-nominated series of stories exposed how London-property developers who were speculatively buying-up family homes in Corby and splitting them into HMOs. This was forcing prices up, and squeezing locals out of the area.
The Article 4 direction means even small HMOs in the Kingswood area must get formal planning permission from the council.
But in the remainder of Corby and the surrounding area, only those homes that have seven or more adult occupants need the council’s green-light. If the Frith Close HMO does not get the go-ahead from the council, the applicant could instead choose to convert it to a six-bed HMO without the need for permission.
All HMOs with more than five occupants must be separately licensed by the local authority.