The owner wanted to transform an outbuilding at Rivermead in Spurlings Road, Fareham into three extra bedrooms to serve the existing six‑bed shared house. But the scheme was thrown out – first by Fareham Borough Council in 2025 and now by a planning inspector. However, planning inspector V Goldberg was not convinced by the explanation given. Shifting three bedrooms into the outbuilding might give a “better internal layout” and bigger communal areas in the main HMO, the inspector said, but it still resulted in the garden building providing core residential accommodation. The inspector warned that adding the label “ancillary” on a garden building is not enough if, in reality, it is being used as extra living space.