Accommodation arrangement for UK spousal visa application

Hi everyone,

I'm so glad to have discovered this very helpful forum. My fiance (a US citizen) and I (a UK citizen) are getting married next month and are preparing our documents for a spousal visa application so that she can join me in the UK.

My questions relate to the supporting documents needed for the accommodation part of our application.

We are planning on initially living at my parent's home while looking for a rental property to move into later on this year. My parent's house consists of 4 bedrooms, 1 living room and 1 study room. Including my parents and I, my 3 siblings (all >10 years of age) also live in the house. The current arrangement is as follows: 2 parents sleep in the first bedroom, 1 sibling sleeps in the second bedroom, 1 sibling sleeps in the third bedroom, 1 sibling sleeps in the living room, and I sleep in the fourth bedroom. My wife would live with me in the fourth bedroom.

Question 1: I am unsure whether the Home Office will think that these arrangements are overcrowded if one sibling has to sleep in the living room, and wanted to hear people's thoughts on this. According to the Housing Act 1985, "account is taken only of rooms with a floor area larger than 50 square feet and rooms of a type used either as a living room or bedroom." From this, I assume that I should be okay as each of the rooms is >50 square feet and the living room counts, but I just wanted to make sure.

Question 2: I have read that some people on this forum pay for property inspection reports and submit this as supporting evidence. I was wondering how necessary this was? I was initially planning on just taking photographs of the four bedrooms and living room to show that there would be enough space for everyone. If a property inspection report is required, has anyone had experience on a reliable organisation to go to for this?

Question 3: (Assuming that we do not submit a property inspection report) I wanted to check whether these supporting documents would be enough:
1. Letter from my parents inviting my spouse to live in the home, confirming the number of rooms and current occupants, and that the house will not be overcrowded when my spouse comes to live with us.
2. Land registry document (downloaded from: https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/).
3. Most recent mortgage statement (does this need to be 6 months of statements?)
Are there any other documents that I should be including?

Thanks so much to all of you!

Question 1: I am unsure whether the Home Office will think that these arrangements are overcrowded if one sibling has to sleep in the living room, and wanted to hear people's thoughts on this. According to the Housing Act 1985, "account is taken only of rooms with a floor area larger than 50 square feet and rooms of a type used either as a living room or bedroom." From this, I assume that I should be okay as each of the rooms is >50 square feet and the living room counts, but I just wanted to make sure.

According to UKVI's Maintenance and Accommodation requirements, if you have 4 bedrooms plus 1 living room, you can have up to 10 people living in the property... so with 7 people (2 parents, 3 siblings, you and your wife) you will be fine for the visa.

See:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintenance-and-accommodation-maa/maintenance-and-accommodation-maa--2#maa12-overcrowding

Question 2: I have read that some people on this forum pay for property inspection reports and submit this as supporting evidence. I was wondering how necessary this was? I was initially planning on just taking photographs of the four bedrooms and living room to show that there would be enough space for everyone. If a property inspection report is required, has anyone had experience on a reliable organisation to go to for this?

Property Inspections are not and have never been required. You do not need photos of the property either.

Question 3: (Assuming that we do not submit a property inspection report) I wanted to check whether these supporting documents would be enough:
1. Letter from my parents inviting my spouse to live in the home, confirming the number of rooms and current occupants, and that the house will not be overcrowded when my spouse comes to live with us.
2. Land registry document (downloaded from: https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/).
3. Most recent mortgage statement (does this need to be 6 months of statements?)
Are there any other documents that I should be including?

Nope, that's all you need for the accommodation.

For the mortgage statement, you just need the latest annual statement just to show it's still being paid. I think that's usually all they issue anyway - I only receive one mortgage statement per year.