City council brings seven homes used as short lets back into family use after issuing series of enforcement notices

It issued seven planning enforcement notices for a property which it said the owner had used as a short let business without planning permission.  

The owner did not appeal against the notices and the homes are now on the local property market as C3 dwelling houses, which cannot be used as houses in multiple occupation.

Oxford said converting a residential property into short-term rentals for longer than 140 nights in a calendar year was a material change of use requiring planning permission. 

Linda Smith, cabinet member for housing and communities, said: “We are committed to ensuring that properties in Oxford are used for the purposes they are registered for.

“It’s almost impossible to say how many much-needed homes Oxford has lost to short lets because the sector is still virtually unregulated.

“What we do know is there are nearly 3,500 households on our waiting list for council housing and that unregulated short lets can cause misery in our communities.”

Visitors were welcome in Oxford but “uncontrolled short lets are a blight on our communities”, Cllr Smith added.

Oxford said it had asked the government for powers to regulate whole-property short lets because these were lost to the local market in what was already the UK’s least affordable city. It also wanted to see a separate planning use class for short lets.

The council said it had few powers to enforce the standards in the short lets sector that are required for other types of rented accommodation.   

Although the planning enforcement action route had been successful in some cases it was “a lengthy process which relies on people making complaints about individual properties”.  

Mandatory registration would ensure owners met minimum safety standards and make council investigations of complaints significantly easier to carry out, the council said, while also allowing Oxford to set conditions, for example on noise levels at night. 

Mark Smulian