Does an HMO need a legionella risk assessment?

Yes. The duty on a landlord to assess and control the risk of legionella applies to any rented home, and a house in multiple occupation has more of the things that raise the risk: more bathrooms, more stored hot water, rooms that stand empty between lets, and more people.

Is a legionella risk assessment an HMO licence condition?

Not a mandatory one. The conditions every licence must carry cover gas safety, electrical safety, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and tenancy terms. Councils can add their own conditions and some ask for a legionella risk assessment; read your licence.

Who does it in an HMO, the landlord or the manager?

The health and safety duty is the landlord’s. The HMO management regulations separately require the manager to keep the water supply in good, clean and working condition, with any storage tank clean and covered. If the landlord and manager are different people, the agreement between them should say who does the assessment.

What about rooms that are empty?

An en-suite in an empty room is a little-used outlet. Its taps and shower should be run weekly until a new tenant arrives, and the scheme of control should say who does that, because the tenants cannot.

How often should an HMO be reassessed?

There is no fixed legal interval. Review when the water system, its use or the occupants change, and periodically otherwise. In an HMO the occupants change often, so the review is about whether anything about the system or its use has changed, not every new tenant.

Does it cost more for an HMO?

Not with DwellFlow. One price per property, however many rooms. A six-bedroom HMO with four en-suites takes longer to survey than a combi flat, and costs the same.

Legionella risk assessment for an HMO

What the law adds for an HMO

Three things, and only one of them names the tank.

The landlord’s duty is the same. Health and safety law requires the risk of exposure of tenants to legionella to be assessed and controlled. HSE’s guidance lists hostels and shared accommodation alongside ordinary lets; the duty does not change with the number of tenancies under one roof.
The manager must keep the water clean. The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 require the manager to keep the water supply and drainage “in good, clean and working condition” and any tank or cistern used for drinking or domestic water “kept in a good, clean and working condition, with a cover kept over it”. That is a legionella control measure written into HMO law, whether or not the word appears.
Licensing may add it. The conditions every HMO licence must carry cover the gas safety certificate, electrical safety, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and written tenancy terms. Legionella is not among them. Councils can attach their own conditions and some ask for a legionella risk assessment, so read your licence and your council’s standard conditions.

Why an HMO is different

More water, more people, more standing still.

Legionella grows in water between 20 °C and 45 °C, and it likes water that is stored and water that does not move. An HMO has more of both. Bigger cylinders, sometimes two, feeding four or five showers. Long pipe runs to the top floor. En-suites that stand unused for the weeks a room is empty. Shower heads that nobody in the house thinks of as theirs to clean. And more people, so a higher chance that one of them is over 45, a smoker, or living with a lung condition, the groups HSE says are most at risk.

The occupants also change constantly, room by room, so nobody can be told once. Control measures that a family house leaves to the tenant, weekly flushing of an unused outlet above all, have to be done by whoever manages the house.

What a competent HMO assessment records

Every room, every outlet, and who flushes the empty ones.

Stored water. Each cylinder and its stored temperature (60 °C), each tank with its lid, insulation and condition, and a photograph of each.
A temperature at every outlet, room by room and en-suite by en-suite: hot at 50 °C within a minute, cold below 20 °C within two.
Which rooms are empty and for how long, and the outlets that go with them.
A scheme of control written for the manager: weekly flushing of any unused outlet, shower heads cleaned and descaled quarterly, stored hot water kept at 60 °C, the tank looked at when the assessment is reviewed.
A sheet for the tenants: do not turn the hot water down, clean your shower head, report hot water that is not heating properly.

Doing it

One survey, however many rooms. AI does the write-up.

DwellFlow asks about an HMO as an HMO: the property type is a question, and the survey works through the house room by room, asking for the reading and the photograph at each outlet and whether the room is let. You take the readings; the AI checks the survey before you submit and then produces the assessment, the tenant sheet and the scheme of control, with the guidance clause under every recommendation and the schematic drawn for you. One price per property, whatever the room count.

Questions HMO landlords ask

Short answers.

Does an HMO need a legionella risk assessment? Yes. The duty on a landlord to assess and control the risk of legionella applies to any rented home, and a house in multiple occupation has more of the things that raise the risk: more bathrooms, more stored hot water, rooms that stand empty between lets, and more people.
Is a legionella risk assessment an HMO licence condition? Not a mandatory one. The conditions every licence must carry cover gas safety, electrical safety, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and tenancy terms. Councils can add their own conditions and some ask for a legionella risk assessment; read your licence.
Who does it in an HMO, the landlord or the manager? The health and safety duty is the landlord’s. The HMO management regulations separately require the manager to keep the water supply in good, clean and working condition, with any storage tank clean and covered. If the landlord and manager are different people, the agreement between them should say who does the assessment.
What about rooms that are empty? An en-suite in an empty room is a little-used outlet. Its taps and shower should be run weekly until a new tenant arrives, and the scheme of control should say who does that, because the tenants cannot.
How often should an HMO be reassessed? There is no fixed legal interval. Review when the water system, its use or the occupants change, and periodically otherwise. In an HMO the occupants change often, so the review is about whether anything about the system or its use has changed, not every new tenant.
Does it cost more for an HMO? Not with DwellFlow. One price per property, however many rooms. A six-bedroom HMO with four en-suites takes longer to survey than a combi flat, and costs the same.

HSE’s guidance is on its page on legionella and landlords’ responsibilities.

Legionella risk assessment for an HMO.

Three things, and only one of them names the tank.

More water, more people, more standing still.

Every room, every outlet, and who flushes the empty ones.

One survey, however many rooms. AI does the write-up.

See what a finished assessment looks like.

Short answers.

Do the whole house this week.