A house in multiple occupation (HMO), or a house of multiple occupancy, is a British English term which refers to residential properties occupied by more than one household which have shared 'common areas'.
Most HMOs have been subdivided from larger houses designed for and occupied by one family. Some housing legislation makes a distinction between buildings occupied mainly on long leases and those where the majority of the occupants are short-term tenants.
A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is important to economics and inheritance.
Household models include families, blended families, shared housing, group homes, boarding houses, houses of multiple occupancy (UK), and single room occupancy (US). In feudal societies, the royal household and medieval households of the wealthy included servants and other retainers.
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