{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/housing-act-2004/section-259",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/housing-act-2004/section-259.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/2004/34",
  "legislation_title": "Housing Act 2004",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/housing-act-2004",
  "path": "section/259",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "259",
  "heading": "HMOs: persons treated as occupying premises as only or main residence",
  "text": "(1) This section sets out when persons are to be treated for the purposes of section 254 as occupying a building or part of a building as their only or main residence.\n(2) A person is to be treated as so occupying a building or part of a building if it is occupied by the person—\n(a) as the person’s residence for the purpose of undertaking a full-time course of further or higher education;\n(b) as a refuge, or\n(c) in any other circumstances which are circumstances of a description specified for the purposes of this section in regulations made by the appropriate national authority.\n(3) In subsection (2)(b) “refuge” means a building or part of a building managed by a voluntary organisation and used wholly or mainly for the temporary accommodation of persons who have left their homes as a result of—\n(a) physical violence or mental abuse, or\n(b) threats of such violence or abuse,\nfrom persons who are or were their spouses or civil partners or with whom they are or were co-habiting.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words in s. 259(3) substituted (2.12.2019) by The Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/1458), reg. 1(2), Sch. 3 para. 26(5)"
    },
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "S. 259 wholly in force at 18.1.2005; s. 259 in force for certain purposes at Royal Assent and in force otherwise at 18.1.2005, see s. 270(2)(b)(3)(a)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/section/259",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T09:16:48.975968+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}