A Sunderland appeal for an 11-bedroom house in multiple occupation (HMO) has been dismissed after an Inspector found that vehicle movements would disturb neighbours on an exceptionally quiet residential street. The decision concerns the proposed conversion of a former eight-bedroom care home on Godfrey Road and was issued on 30 October 2026.
There was a second loss for Metters Properties Ltd, named as the appellant in both decisions. The Inspectorate’s online record lists Neil Metters as the applicant. Inspector Peter Eggleton separately refused its application for a full award of appeal costs against Sunderland City Council. The council’s planning committee had departed from officer advice, but the Inspector found that its concerns about noise were reasonably based on the site’s circumstances.
This HMO conversion appeal is useful because it distinguishes a lawful residential institution from an unrestricted 11-person HMO, and separates highway safety from the noise associated with arriving and departing vehicles. It is particularly striking alongside four smaller HMO appeals allowed in South Shields on the same day, also by Inspector Eggleton.
Why the HMO conversion appeal failed
The proposed development involved converting a vacant eight-bedroom care facility within Use Class C2 into an 11-bedroom House in Multiple Occupation, a sui generis use. Sunderland City Council refused application 26/00514/FUL, leading to appeal 6012910. Although the plans indicated that larger rooms could accommodate two people, the Inspector assessed the proposal on the basis that a condition could limit occupation to 11 people, as the appellant suggested.
The site lies in a residential estate towards Sunderland’s built-up edge, with two-storey houses, bungalows and a nearby area of public open space. Godfrey Road is served by relatively narrow roads with little through traffic. Although the wider area has shops and bus routes, this particular section of road was unusually quiet. The Inspector’s visit revealed very few vehicle movements during a weekday morning.
Noise, not highway danger, was decisive
In this HMO conversion appeal, the council did not claim that the proposal would create unacceptable highway safety problems. The Inspector accepted that the highway could operate safely and that future residents would have some sustainable transport options. But that did not answer the amenity question of how frequent arrivals, departures, taxi stops and deliveries might sound outside nearby bedrooms.
The road geometry meant that on-street parking and waiting were most likely directly outside the appeal property and neighbouring homes. Some sections of nearby road were too narrow for comfortable parking. The Inspector considered that car doors, engines and associated conversations at night or early in the morning could be particularly noticeable in an environment with very low background activity.
The decision described the location as a particularly quiet housing area
. The Inspector judged that the extra noise from an 11-person HMO would be unacceptably harmful, especially to occupants of the neighbouring house whose first-floor bedrooms were close to the parking area. The criticism was therefore site-specific, not a general presumption against HMOs or shared housing.
Why the former care home use was not equivalent
The applicant argued that the building’s existing lawful C2 use could already involve a substantial number of people, staff changes, visitors and commercial refuse collection. The Inspector accepted that care homes and nursing homes can generate significant daytime activity and that some early or late movements could occur. A lawful residential institution is not necessarily comparable to an ordinary family dwelling.
The difference lay in the likely pattern of use. A managed care facility would normally have staffing and more predictable daily activity, with relatively limited movement at unsociable hours. Eleven separate adult households could leave or return for work, social activities and shopping on different schedules, and might make greater use of taxis, food deliveries or private cars. The Inspector was not persuaded that late-night movements would be comparable.
Planning Geek’s HMO planning policy guidance explores how councils approach concentrations, living conditions, parking and the intensity of a proposed change of use. Planning classification matters, but the likely real-world pattern of occupation can be just as important when considering amenity.
Why a management plan was insufficient
The HMO conversion appeal was not defeated by room sizes or a concentration of HMOs. The Inspector considered that the proposed accommodation would give residents a reasonable standard of living. Local authority environmental health and highways consultees had not raised decisive objections, and the building’s vacancy and the contribution of affordable, flexible housing weighed in favour of the scheme.
The applicant offered a management plan to respond to disturbance and control the use. The Inspector considered that garden activity could potentially be dealt with through restrictions on outdoor seating and night-time use. Conditions might also improve supervision and site management, but they could not reliably prevent noise from vehicles stopping and moving on the public road outside other people’s homes.
The lesson is not that a management plan is worthless. It is that controls need to address the actual source of harm. Where the main problem is vehicle activity beyond the applicant’s boundary, a promise about resident behaviour or rear-garden use may have limited effect. Our HMO planning application guide covers the evidence applicants should consider before relying on operational safeguards.
National policy benefits did not outweigh the harm
The Inspector recognised the positive planning benefits. Reusing a vacant building would provide accommodation for 11 households, and the revised August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework gives substantial weight to housing supply and making efficient use of underused buildings. He considered Policies HO7, L2, L3 and the settlement presumption under Policy S4.
Nevertheless, the HMO conversion appeal conflicted with Sunderland Core Strategy policies H6 and BH1, and with national design Policy DP3. The localised noise harm meant that the benefits, although substantial, were themselves substantially outweighed under Policy S4. The decision did not rest on generalised fears about the type of people who might live there, and the Inspector expressly noted some local support.
Why the costs application also failed
Metters Properties Ltd sought a full costs award, arguing that the council had made vague or unsubstantiated claims, departed from officer advice, failed to acknowledge the lawful care home use and overlooked the ability to impose conditions. Costs proceedings have a different test from the planning merits: the applicant must show unreasonable behaviour which caused unnecessary or wasted expense.
In his separate costs decision, Inspector Eggleton said Given the nature of the area and the scale of the use, such a conclusion was not unreasonable.
He found that the committee minutes recognised the previous use, and the council was entitled to reach a planning judgment about activity on the street even without a formal noise assessment requested by officers.
The HMO conversion appeal therefore failed on its planning merits, while the costs claim failed because unreasonable conduct causing unnecessary appeal expense had not been demonstrated. A council’s refusal contrary to an officer recommendation does not, by itself, establish a right to costs. The Planning Geek guide to recovering appeal costs explains the separate process and requirements.
Four smaller HMOs were allowed the same day
There is a useful comparison with four South Shields HMO appeals allowed on 30 October. In those separate decisions, Inspector Eggleton considered smaller proposals, relatively busy roads, sustainable transport links and South Tyneside’s recently adopted Policy 16. The proposals were not found to cause unacceptable concentration, parking or amenity harm on their specific facts.
That comparison does not mean that an 11-person HMO must always be refused, or that a four-person HMO will always be approved. Site character, the lawful alternative use, likely occupancy, opening patterns, nearby bedrooms, road conditions and the evidence of harm all matter. When comparing appeal decisions, look at why the actual scheme was acceptable or unacceptable, not just the final outcome.
Inspector decisions and sources
Inspector Peter Eggleton dismissed Planning Inspectorate appeal 6012910 and refused a separate full costs application on 30 October 2026. The decisions concern Sunderland City Council application 26/00514/FUL. The short quotations above come from the official appeal and costs decisions and are reproduced under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The appeal decision is also available on AppealBase.
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