A terrace house has been given the greenlight to operate as an house of multiple occupancy after already working that way for a decade.

The house, on Bradford Street in the Haulgh, has already been used as a HMO for six people for more than 10 years according to a report by town hall officials.

Officers decided to approve this after reporting that they had not received any enforcement notices in that time.

A Bolton Council report said: “There is sufficient evidence that the property has operated as a Sui Generis HMO for a continuous period between March 14 2012 and present, an excess of ten years.

“There are also no enforcement cases registered on file during this period.”

The Bolton News: The decision was taken by officials at Bolton town hallThe decision was taken by officials at Bolton town hall (Image: Newsquest)

It added: “The applicant has supplied two ‘House in Multiple Occupation Licences’ issued by Bolton Council which demonstrate that the property has operated as a valid HMO for up to seven people between March 14 2012 and September 14 2016 and November 10 2017 and November 10 2022.

“There is a 13-and-a-half-month gap between the licences, which the applicant has attributed to a change of ownership and delays in issuing the second licence from the Council’s Housing Standards department.”

The application for a certificate of lawlessness was put to Bolton Council last December and was decided upon by Bolton Council’s planning department in the new year on January 20.

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HMOs have long proven to be a controversial housing option across the borough in recent years with concerns having been raised about the standard of living in spaces like these and about the effect they can have on their areas.

Early this month a proposal for a new HMO in Farnworth was thrown out by Bolton Councillors after debates around the effect it could have had on traffic and parking in the area as well as the ongoing loss of family homes nearby.

But in the case of Bradford Street, council officers have decided to give it a certificate of lawfulness after deciding that no problems have been raised in the decade that it has already been working ‘sui generis’ in this way.