MAA14 Overcrowding

Residential housing

The Housing Act 1985 contains statutory definitions of overcrowding in residential housing. The ECO should bear in mind, as Pakistan 2004 UKAIT 000066 says, that adequacy of accommodation must be assessed on an individual basis. It is not enough to equate adequacy with overcrowding.

A house is considered to be overcrowded if 2 persons aged 10 years or more of opposite sexes, who are not living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room. The Act also details the maximum number of people allowed for a given number of rooms or a given room floor area.

Account is taken only of rooms with a floor area larger than 50 square feet and rooms of a type used either as a living room or bedroom.

Rooms such as kitchens or bathrooms are excluded.

Under the Housing Act, the number of people sleeping in accommodation must not exceed the following:

Number of rooms / Maximum number of people allowed

1/ 2

2/ 3

3/ 5

4/ 7.5

5/ 10

Each additional room in excess of 5 An additional 2 people

For the purpose of the Act:

• a child under one does not count as a person.

• a child aged 1-10 years counts as only half a person.

Does this mean my step son aged 17, my step daughter aged 10 and my other step son aged 9 can all sleep in the same room...?? SLight contradiction with the statement "A house is considered to be overcrowded if 2 persons aged 10 years or more of opposite sexes, who are not living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room." and children aged 1-10 count as half ????

Edited April 30, 201115 yr by jasonr3255

No.

The two boys can share a room, but the girl must have a room of her own or share with another female.

No contradiction.

"For the purpose of the Act:

• a child under one does not count as a person.

• a child aged 1-10 years counts as only half a person"

is used to assess the total number of people in the property. For the rules on sharing sleeping accommodation each person counts as one.

No.

The two boys can share a room, but the girl must have a room of her own or share with another female.

No contradiction.

"For the purpose of the Act:

• a child under one does not count as a person.

• a child aged 1-10 years counts as only half a person"

is used to assess the total number of people in the property. For the rules on sharing sleeping accommodation each person counts as one.

Thanks 7by7 for the speedy reply but where does it state that "For the rules on sharing sleeping accomodation each person counts as one" ???

It doesn't state it directly, but it is implicit in the wording.

A house is considered to be overcrowded if 2 persons aged 10 years or more of opposite sexes, who are not living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room. The Act also details the maximum number of people allowed for a given number of rooms or a given room floor area.

(My emphasis)

However, I may be reading it wrong and the 9 and 10 year olds would only count as half a person each; even so I think you would almost certainly be refused if the three of them had to share a room.

We were when we only had two bedrooms, which meant my then 17 year old step-son would have had to share with his then 10 year old sister. This was 10 years ago, but I doubt it has changed that much.