Article 4 directions decide whether you can create a small HMO at all. Not the licence, the planning. Buy a mid-terrace in the wrong postcode, fill it with four sharers, and you may be operating an unauthorised use the council can enforce against. Here is the position as it stands in 2026, and what to check before you offer.
What an Article 4 direction is
The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 grants a set of permitted development rights, changes you can make without a planning application. Article 4 of that Order lets a local planning authority withdraw specified rights within a defined area. Nothing is banned outright. The effect is procedural: what was automatic now needs a full planning application, decided against local policy.
How Article 4 removes the C3 to C4 right
A family house sits in use class C3. A small HMO, three to six unrelated occupants sharing facilities, sits in class C4. Class L of Part 3, Schedule 2 of the 2015 Order permits the change from C3 to C4, and back again, without an application. That is the mechanism behind most small HMO conversions in England.
An Article 4 direction aimed at Class L switches that off. Inside the boundary, converting a house to a small HMO needs full planning permission, and Nottingham’s published guidance, for one, says that permission is highly unlikely to be granted. Many authorities apply concentration-based policies to refuse new HMOs in streets that already have them.
Large HMOs are different. Seven or more occupants is sui generis, outside the use classes altogether. That change has always needed planning permission, everywhere in England, Article 4 or not.
Making a direction and the notice period
A council has two routes. A non-immediate direction is publicised in advance of its in-force date. An immediate direction takes effect straight away, but exposes the council to compensation claims under sections 107 and 108 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 if permission is later refused for something the withdrawn right would have allowed. Under section 108(3B) and (3C) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and the Town and Country Planning (Compensation) (England) Regulations 2015, notice of at least twelve months, and no more than two years, before the in-force date eliminates that liability, so HMO directions are almost always non-immediate.
That creates a window. Birmingham publicised its citywide direction in June 2019; it came into force on 8 June 2020. In the gap, a C3 to C4 conversion completed under permitted development remained lawful. Once a direction is announced where you buy, the clock is running, the in-force date separates a lawful existing HMO from one needing permission it may never get.
Four live examples
Nottingham has run a citywide direction since March 2012; its guidance also warns that an HMO licence issued without planning permission may initially run for only twelve months.
Birmingham’s direction, in force since 8 June 2020, covers the whole city, replacing earlier directions limited to Selly Oak, Harborne and Edgbaston.
Sheffield’s direction came into force on 10 December 2011 and covers designated areas rather than the whole city, broadly the wards around the universities, including Broomhill and Crookes. Boundaries matter: check any Sheffield HMO against the council’s published Article 4 map before an offer. Where we list there, such as the two student HMOs on Cemetery Avenue, S11, the planning position is set out with the listing.
Oldham is the newest. A borough-wide, non-immediate direction was confirmed on 15 December 2025 and took effect on 1 January 2026, removing the C3 to C4 right across the whole borough. Established HMOs inside a new boundary, such as the tenanted five-bed room-by-room HMO on Boundary Park Road, now sit on the protected side of the line: exactly the scarcity story this article tells. One caveat on Oldham, because it cuts against the rule above: its direction was made on 22 September 2025 and took effect on 1 January 2026, so the total notice was closer to three months than to twelve. Non-immediate does not guarantee a year of warning. Check the notice date on the specific direction rather than assuming a long run-in.
How to check an address
- Search the council’s planning policy pages for its Article 4 direction and map, most publish the boundary as a PDF or a GIS layer.
- Read the direction itself: which rights it withdraws, the boundary, and the in-force date.
- Check the property’s planning history on the council’s application search. Look for a granted change of use, an enforcement notice, or a certificate of lawfulness.
- If the position is unclear, ask the planning department in writing.
Coverage varies street by street and council by council. An HMO on Oakwood Street in Sunderland and one on Arundel Street in Redcar sit under different councils, different maps and potentially different answers. Never assume the rules travel with you from the last town you bought in.
What Article 4 does to values and supply
Inside a direction, the supply of new small HMOs is effectively capped. Existing lawful HMOs become the only way in, carrying the value of a use that can no longer be created freely. In our own deal flow an established C4 in an Article 4 area often commands a premium over an identical unconverted house next door. We are not aware of published systematic data quantifying that gap, so treat it as an observation from what we see rather than a benchmark. It is also why such stock increasingly changes hands away from the portals, a pattern examined in our off-market property report for England.
The premium rests entirely on evidence. Acceptable proof is planning permission for the HMO use, or a certificate of lawful existing use showing the C4 use began before the direction took effect. A certificate evidences the lawful use; a temporary void between tenancies does not defeat it. A licence is not proof. A rent roll is not proof. If the vendor cannot evidence lawful use, you are buying a house with HMO income and planning risk attached, and the price should say so. Whatever price the evidence supports, purchase taxes sit on top, see our 2026 stamp duty guide for investment property.
The continuity risks are specific. A void between tenancies does not by itself extinguish a lawful use; only abandonment can, judged on the property’s condition, the length of non-use, any intervening uses and the owner’s intentions. The sharper risk is reversion: a family let can amount to a material change of use back to C3, and returning the property to HMO use later would then need permission the council may refuse.
Licensing is a separate test
HMO licensing sits under the Housing Act 2004 and has nothing to do with planning. Mandatory licensing applies across England to HMOs occupied by five or more people forming two or more households, the five-occupant Boundary Park Road HMO above sits squarely within it. Councils can add additional licensing for smaller HMOs, and selective licensing covering all private rentals in a designated area.
The two regimes do not read across. A licensed HMO can still be an unauthorised planning use. Nottingham’s twelve-month licence rule exists precisely because of that gap. Planning permission, equally, does not license the property. Check both, every time.
Tenancy law is moving too. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025, whose first phase has been in force since 1 May 2026, reshapes possession and moves lettings onto periodic tenancies. It changes nothing in the planning analysis, but belongs on the same pre-offer checklist.
Before you offer
- Establish the current use class: C3, C4 or sui generis.
- If it is sold as an HMO in an Article 4 area, ask for the planning permission or certificate of lawfulness. No document, lower price.
- Confirm the direction’s boundary and in-force date against the tenancy history.
- Check which licensing schemes apply, mandatory, additional or selective, and the licence conditions and expiry.
- Ask the council, in writing, if anything does not line up.
This is the work we do before a deal is listed: planning status is confirmed with the council, not taken from the sales particulars. If a listing says HMO, the paperwork behind that word has been asked for. When you are weighing an HMO purchase in 2026, the Article 4 question is the first one to answer, because it is the one you cannot fix after completion.