Overcrowding

Find out if your home is legally overcrowded and what you can do if you are living in overcrowded conditions. 

What is overcrowding? 

If your accommodation is much too small for your household you may be legally overcrowded. 

There are two ways to calculate if you are legally overcrowded: 

  • The ‘room standard’: look at the number and sex of people who have to sleep in the same room 
  • The ‘space standard’: measure the amount of space in your home and the number of people living in it. 

The room standard 

Your home is overcrowded by law if: 

  • 2 people of a different sex have to sleep in the same room 
  • they are aged 10 or over. 

The exceptions to this rule are: 

  • cohabiting or married couples, who can live in the same room without causing overcrowding 
  • children under the age of ten, who are completely ignored in the calculation. 

Any room you can sleep in counts, not just bedrooms. Living room, dining rooms and studies count as rooms you can sleep in, even if you don’t actually do so. 

Example 

A couple with a boy and a girl aged under the age of 10 in a one bedroom flat are not overcrowded (because the children are ignored). 

The space standard 

There are two ways to work out if you’re overcrowded using the space standard. 

First count the number of people in your home: 

  • don’t include children under 1 year old 
  • children aged 1 to 9 years count as a half 
  • anyone aged 10 or over counts as one person. 

Next, count the number of rooms or measure the floor space of each room. 

Don’t count any room that is: 

  • under 50 square feet or 4.6 square metres 
  • not a bedroom or living room 

As a general rule, the number of rooms considered enough for your family is: 

  • 1 room = 2 people 
  • 2 rooms = 3 people 
  • 3 rooms = 5 people 
  • 4 rooms = 7.5 people 
  • 5 or more rooms = 2 people per room. 

The minimum floor area considered enough for your family is: 

  • 110 sq feet (10.2 sq metres approx) = 2 people 
  • 90 – 109 sq ft (8.4 – 10.2 sq m approx) = 1.5 people 
  • 70 – 89 sq ft (6.5 – 8.4 sq m approx) = 1 person 
  • 50 – 69 sq ft (4.6 – 6.5 sq m approx) = 0.5 people. 

If the numbers are different, the lower number is used. Your home is legally overcrowded if the number of people living there is more than this. 

What can I do if I am living in overcrowded accommodation? 

Private contract-holders
As a standard contract-holder with a private landlord it is unlikely that you can make your home larger. You will probably have to consider other housing. This might mean: 

  • finding a larger private rented home 
  • applying for a community landlord home 
  • asking the council to help you because you are homeless (making a ‘homeless application‘). 

If you are legally overcrowded and you make a homeless application the council will probably have to give you some advice and help. If the council decide that it is no longer reasonable for you to continue to live in the property they will have to help you find a home, or in some situations, help you work out a way to stay in your current home. In severe cases, the council might have to provide you with alternative emergency accommodation. 

You may get priority on the waiting list for an occupation contact with a community landlord. How quickly you would get a place depends on the number of people on the waiting list and the amount of housing available. Many community landlords have very long waiting lists and a shortage of properties suitable for large families. 

Community landlord contract-holders
It may be possible to get a transfer to another property owned by your community landlord. Most councils operate a common waiting list to access the community landlords in their area, while in some areas you need to apply to each landlord – ask the council for information about the rules. You may have to wait a long time for somewhere suitable, especially if you need a large property. 

Alternatively, you may be able to swap homes by mutual exchange with another contract-holder, possibly in another part of the country. You must both have permission from your landlords and the exchange must be arranged properly. Otherwise, you could both lose your homes. 

Don’t give up an overcrowded home without getting help first. You could risk not being able to get another council or housing association home. 

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Yn anffodus, ni allwn ddarparu'r wybodaeth hon yn Gymraeg. Mae cyfieithiad Cymraeg ar gael trwy'r ddolen Cymorth Clyweledol ar frig y dudalen. Fodd bynnag, ni fydd y cyfieithiad yn gwbl gywir bob amser gan ei fod yn cael ei gynhyrchu'n awtomatig
Unfortunately, we cannot provide this information in Welsh. There is a Welsh translation available via the Audio Visual Help link at the top of the page. However, these will not always be completely accurate as they are automatically generated.

This page was last updated on: February 20, 2023

Shelter Cymru acknowledges the support of Shelter in allowing us to adapt their content. The information contained on this site is updated and maintained by Shelter Cymru and only gives general guidance on the law in Wales. It should not be regarded or relied upon as a complete or authoritative statement of the law.