People living in a Bristol street have reacted with shock after a property developer began work to convert a two-up-two-down terraced house into a seven bedroom HMO. One local councillor described the House in Multiple Occupation plan for the small house in Bedminster as ‘appalling’ and vowed to ‘call-in’ the plan for further scrutiny.
Work on a loft conversion on the late Victorian terraced home in Ruby Street has already begun, and the man behind the project has angered local residents by posting pictures of the work on his Instagram account. Nottingham-based property developer Tolu Koya told his Insta followers that ‘many neighbourly issues can be sorted… and we did’.
While the physical work to convert the loft into bedrooms is perfectly legal, Mr Koya needs planning permission to change the use of the two-up-two-down house into an HMO. That still has to go through the planning process, and no decision on it has yet been made. And the application, which took four months to be validated by the city council’s planning department, has already attracted more than 30 objections from local residents in less than a week.
Read more: The 'studio room' with a shower at the end of the bed next to the kitchen sink
The application details just how the terraced home will be converted from the classic terraced house layout with two bedrooms and a back bathroom upstairs, into a seven room HMO.
The loft conversion will be a dormer at the back and be split into two rooms, sharing a small shower room. The two upstairs bedrooms will each have en-suite shower rooms added, and the small bathroom will be taken out and replaced with a bedroom, again with its own en-suite shower and toilet.
Downstairs, both the front room and back dining room will be changed to bedrooms, again with their own en-suite shower room facility. Finally, the kitchen downstairs, which is 2.7m wide, will be the only communal room in the house, and changed to a kitchen-diner. The illustration shows a dining room table to seat seven, running across the width of the room.
Under a new policy from Bristol City Council, anyone commenting, supporting or objecting to the plans can withhold their name publicly, and one objector who did that, detailed in their objection just where they claimed the applicant was not meeting HMO minimum space requirements.
“The width of the proposed communal kitchen diner is only 2.7m, and there needs to be 0.9m space in between the dining area and the wall, for access to the kitchen area,” they wrote. “This means there is only 1.8m remaining to fit an entire person, their chair, and the entire dinner table, which needs to take four place settings comfortably side by side. This allows for perhaps 35cm per person, which is completely inadequate, and so doesn’t qualify as a suitable dining area for seven occupants,” they added.
They also objected on the grounds that seven people would be sharing kitchen facilities that included a ‘cooker with a four-ring hob’, which breached the Bristol City Council HMO minimum requirements. The objector also pointed out that the applicant had cited Ruby Street’s proximity to South Street Park as a factor.
“This increases 43 Ruby Street’s suitability for a HMO, as communal outdoor space is an important factor,” the applicant wrote. “This means potential occupants could either spend time in the private garden, or alternatively walk to a larger public space”,
“This is inaccurate,” the objector claimed. “South Street Park is used entirely by Compass Point School and children’s centre during school hours, and is not accessible to the residents of Ruby Street. This means that during winter, there is no access to a communal outdoor space during daylight hours between Monday to Friday,” they added.
Above, the existing floorplan of the terraced house in Ruby Street. Below, the proposed floorplan after the conversion to a seven-bed HMO. Both floorplans were submitted to the Bristol City Council planning portal.
A total of 31 objections have been registered by Bristol City Council, with more being posted on the council’s planning portal on Monday, October 10. There is one letter that the council’s planning department has listed as ‘supports’ the application, but its content is actually objecting. Almost all the objections cite existing issues with parking in this part of Bedminster - Bristol Live has reported regularly for years about issues with matchday parking at nearby Ashton Gate, the calls for residents parking schemes, and problems Avon Fire and Rescue Service has with navigating the narrow and car-filled streets. Other objections in Ruby Street point out that almost all the other homes on the terraced street are two or three-bed small family homes, with only a few converted into two flats.
Local councillor Tessa Fitzjohn told Bristol Live she had been contacted by worried residents of Ruby Street and neighbouring streets. “We are getting more and more HMO applications,” she said. “On the whole, they are not good news for the people who live in them, or for the people on the same street,” she said, adding that she had checked the Ruby Street plans. “It’s appalling - absolutely dreadful, to fit seven people in a little terraced house. I will be looking to call this application in,” she said.
The man behind the project is small-scale property developer Tolu Koya, who has a business and Instagram account called ‘Properteekay’. Over the weekend, he visited the work on the loft conversation to see progress, and posted pictures and selfies in the soon-to-be converted loft.
His post appeared to play down issues with planning and neighbours. “It’s been four months in planning, dealing with architects, builders, the local council and neighbours. Yes, neighbours!!” he wrote.
“Real estate development is a community impact project and real lives are affected - and we make every effort to ensure that the impact is positive. It’s not been all plain sailing but with God on our side, good stakeholder management, professional advice… many neighbourly issues can be sorted…and we did. So it’s off to a roaring start with #RenovationAt43,” he wrote.
Several people commented negatively about the conversion to an HMO, including Lucy Tallis who wrote: “Please don’t do this. It wouldn’t be kind to the people in the house, nor the neighbours. The original house was a two-bed.”
Mr Koya responded: “You mean we should not have a loft conversion - the same rights that you have. Do you also mean that others should not have a decent home to live in - which I imagine you do have. What people in the house are you referring to that it wouldn’t be kind to? If you really know the house or me then you wouldn’t have made that comment. Thanks anyway.”
Bristol Live has attempted to contact Mr Koya and is awaiting a response.
Read next:
The Bristol mum taking on adventures as her sight deteriorates
How Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter will change South Bristol in years to come
Care home village site could be turned into hundreds of flats
Case against Bristol cyclist prosecuted for filming driver on phone is dropped
Brislington Meadows: Government will ask itself if it can build homes there
To keep up-to-date with the latest South Bristol news, join our community of subscribers with my South Bristol newsletter here.
