A landlord has had a second application to continue using a property as a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) rejected by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

The application, for the property at 108 Abbey Road, follows a similar refusal for a nearby property at 105 Abbey Road, also submitted by the same applicant.

Both applications sought to establish the legal use of the properties as Class C4 HMOs, which allows for up to six unrelated occupants living in shared accommodation.

The applicant claimed that the property at 108 Abbey Road had been used as an HMO for more than 10 years, in line with the regulations that require the continuous use of a dwelling as an HMO for that period.

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However, the council's planning officers ruled that the evidence provided was insufficient to prove this on the balance of probabilities, leading to the refusal.

In the refusal notice, council officers repeated the reasoning given for the rejection of earlier application.

The officers said the evidence provided was "not sufficiently precise and unambiguous" to demonstrate continuous use of the property as an HMO.

The applicant had relied on a collection of emails and a floor plan, but these were deemed inadequate by the council.

“There is no evidence that the tenants did not at any time form a single household as no tenancy agreements have been submitted in support of the application,” the notice said.

It also said there was no clear proof that the tenants used the property as their only or main residence, or evidence to support how amenities were shared between them during their tenancies.

The council added that the burden of proof lies with the applicant to provide comprehensive and precise documentation, which was lacking in both applications.

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The same issues were cited in the refusal of the first application for 105 Abbey Road, which was submitted with nearly identical evidence.

In that case, council officers remarked that the submitted documentation was "a jumble of emails" and that it was not for the council to decipher the details about individual tenancies or room usage.

In both cases, the council concluded that the applicant had failed to present a clear and unambiguous case to support the continued use of the properties as HMOs, resulting in the refusal for both 105 and 108 Abbey Road.