Purley HMO Refused: 66 Objections to Sunnydene Road Plan

Croydon Council has refused plans to turn a terraced family house in Purley into a five-bedroom house in multiple occupation (HMO).

The application was for 14 Sunnydene Road, CR8 2DG. It drew 66 objections and no letters of support. Council planners refused it on 8 October under delegated powers, without a committee hearing (application 26/02080/FUL).

The objectors included the area’s MP and a local councillor, according to the planning officer’s report.

What was proposed

The plan was to change the house from a single home into a shared house for up to five people, each with their own bedroom. The officer’s report describes it as:

• one bedroom on the ground floor, two on the first floor and two in the roof space
• two shared bathrooms, on the first floor and in the loft
• one shared kitchen and a living and dining room, both on the ground floor
• bins in the front garden and a cycle store for five bikes in the back garden

The house was built with three bedrooms and has since had a loft conversion. Its floor area is about 76 square metres, the report says.

Why it was refused

The decision notice gives four reasons (decision notice, 8 October):

1. Loss of a family home. Croydon’s Local Plan protects homes built with three bedrooms and homes under 130 square metres. This house is both.
2. Poor living conditions. Only one of the five bedrooms met the council’s 10 square metre minimum for a single room. The only window to the ground-floor bedroom would look straight onto four wheelie bins. The two loft bedrooms would be two floors away from the kitchen, which breaks the council’s HMO standards.
3. Parking. The house has no off-street parking, and the street has a public transport rating of 2 on a scale of 0 to 6b. There was no parking survey and no agreement to stop tenants getting parking permits.
4. Cycle storage. Bikes would have to be wheeled through the house, past five internal doors and a right-angle turn, to reach the garden store.

What the objectors said, and what planners made of it

Chris Philp, the MP for Croydon South, objected after the comment deadline had passed. He raised the loss of a family-sized home, noise from comings and goings, living conditions, bins and parking.

Councillor Simon Brew objected too. He said there are no other HMOs in the immediate area. He also pointed out that the dining room plan showed only four chairs for five residents.

Planners did not agree with every objection. The report says:

• five tenants would be unlikely to make materially more noise than a medium-sized family
• the bins would be the same number as a normal household needs, so the street scene would not suffer
• adopted policy sets no limit on how many HMOs an area can have, so concern about clustering could not count against the scheme
• there would be room for a fifth chair

The refusal rests on the four reasons above, not on the character of the street.

Why a five-person HMO needed permission at all

In most of England, turning a house into a small HMO for three to six people does not need planning permission.

Croydon is different. On 28 January 2020 the council made a borough-wide Article 4 direction over concerns about losing small family houses. Since then, every such conversion in the borough has needed a planning application, the officer’s report explains.

What it means for you

• If you live nearby: permission has been refused, so the house cannot lawfully be used as an HMO under this application.
• The applicant can appeal. The decision notice gives six months from 8 October to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. We will check the register for an appeal.
• Any new HMO plan in Croydon needs an application. You can find and comment on applications on the council’s register. Our Croydon planning applications page explains how.
• Renting a room in an HMO? A licensed HMO must meet the council’s standards on room sizes, kitchens and bathrooms, which are the same standards planners used here.