A developer is hoping to convert a dining room into a seventh bedroom after permission was already refused by the council.
An earlier application (BH2023/01895) to add a seventh bedroom to 5 Egremont Place in Queen’s Park was refused by Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee in September.
Now the building’s owner, Mishbec Limited owned by Patrick Eraut, 55, has resubmitted the application for a change of use for the six-bedroom small house of multiple occupation (HMO) to a large.
The proposed design removes a roof terrace, which was criticised in the original application for potential noisiness, and would convert a dining room on the ground floor to a seventh bedroom.
The design and access statement said: “The impact that the change of use – and by extension this one person- could potentially have on the demographic of the neighbourhood is extremely limited and, we would argue, negligible.
“The floor area of the building will not change.
“The additional occupant will be accommodated within an existing room in the property.
“That being the case, one further occupant would not lead to any discernible change to the level of noise and disturbance arising from the property.”
If plans are accepted, the property would have seven bedrooms with three bathrooms, a separate toilet, kitchen/dining room, living room, laundry room and small study.
The council mapped properties in the neighbourhood while considering the previously refused application and found that the percentage of properties used as HMOs within a 50 metre radius of the property was 10.3 percent.
Mishbec Limited also holds planning permission granted on 12 April 2023 to turn 5 Egremont Place into two one-bed flats and one two-bed flat, which has not been implemented.
The building was previously owned and run by Brighton Housing Trust.
You can read the full application on the council’s planning portal under the reference: BH2023/02675.
Just plain greedy. HMO’s with no communal space also lead to the most noise complaints as sharers have no choice but to entertain their visitors in their bedrooms which is hugely noisy as noise carries at night.
Totally agree. Not good to remove the communal dining room. Greedy landlord!
I don’t think that this should be allowed to go ahead. I pay an extortion amount of my money in rent for my daughters student house with little space due to greedy landlords converting their lounge area into an eighth bedroom. 😡😡
The initial reason it was refused the first time around still hasn’t been addressed, that’ll get refused again, for the same reason, no need to look at anything else, easiest decision ever.
Totally Agree Debbie,
Put my two girls through uni – they did earn a little on the side to help but discovered ASOS.
It’s a sad fact that regulation isn’t stronger: I would feel for anyone having to share my en-suite!
Just look at the state of the neighbouring HMO number 3 in that photo (two doors to the left of the property in question). Wooden windows ripped out and replaced with pvc, balcony ripped off, railings gone, mouldings destroyed. This is what unscrupulous landlords are doing to our city. It’s the systematic destruction of the Regency character of the town and must be stopped.