Agentic UK planning use-class change application service for small landlords converting residential properties to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) requiring sui generis or C4 use class consent. Replaces the planning consultant who charges £800–£2,500 to assess whether Article 4 Directions apply, draft the planning application, produce the supporting design-and-access statement, and navigate the local authority's HMO policy — a process that blocks rental income until resolved.
Why now
No live signal batch provided today; justified by persistent regulatory pressure: DLUHC's rolling Article 4 Direction extensions (2023–2025), the Renters Rights Bill 2024 increasing HMO enforcement, and sustained Reddit r/LandlordUK and r/UKPersonalFinance discussion of HMO conversion costs. This is a structurally stable pain point, not a fad.
Commercial value
UK private landlords pay £800–£2,500 per application to planning consultants; an agentic service at £349–£599 per application is an obvious saving. ~500,000 HMO licences exist in England; new conversions run at ~30,000–50,000/yr. Even capturing 0.5% = 150–250 paying applications/yr at £499 avg = £75k–£125k ARR for a solo founder, scaling with referral from mortgage brokers and letting agents.
Go-to-market
Target UK property investor Facebook groups, HMO-specialist mortgage broker networks (e.g. Mortgages for Business referral partners), and r/HMOLandlord. Offer a free Article 4 Direction postcode check as lead magnet. Charge £499 per application pack. First 10 customers via direct DM to landlords posting HMO conversion questions.
2-week MVP
Single feature: a Typeform intake (postcode, property type, proposed room count) that triggers an LLM to check the local authority's Article 4 Direction status via a manually curated lookup table, then produces a 4-page PDF: (1) use-class determination, (2) application form pre-fill, (3) supporting statement draft, (4) fee calculation. Cut: portal submission, automated council API integration, appeal handling. Day-1 outcome: landlord receives a ready-to-submit application pack they'd otherwise pay a consultant £1,200 for.
Agent score
0.61 — Commercial score reflects real, named budget line (planning consultant fees £800–£2,500) but moderate volume per solo founder; speed is high because the MVP is a form + LLM doc generation with a manual lookup table, shippable in 10 days; defensibility is weak — a competitor can clone the lookup table, so score stays below 0.5 unless proprietary Article 4 data and council-specific policy corpus are built over time.
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