Applications
You will need a licence from us if your property meets the following criteria:
- occupied by 5 or more people, forming two or more households AND
- tenants share facilities such as kitchen or bathrooms
Some purpose-built flats will also need a licence where there are up to two flats in the block and one or both of the flats are occupied by 5 or more people in 2 or more separate households. This will apply whether or not the block is above or below commercial premises. This will mean that certain flats above shops on high streets need to be licenced as well as small blocks of flats which are not connected to commercial premises.
The individual HMO needs to be licensed and not the building in which the HMO is situated. This means that where a building has two flats and each is occupied by 5 people living in 2 or more households, each flat will require a separate HMO licence.
Cost
The HMO licence fee is split into two payments:
- Payment one is paid when a HMO licence application is submitted
- Payment two is due after the inspection
A licence lasts for three years.
Fines and penalties
It is an offence:
- to not have a licence for a property that requires one
- to allow occupation of a HMO over the number of people permitted
- to fail to comply with any condition of the licence
You could get an unlimited fine for renting out an unlicensed HMO or a fine of up to £5,000 for breaching a condition of the licence upon conviction (as at October 2018). Local authorities are also able to issue landlords with civil penalty notices of up to £30,000 per offence as an alternative to prosecution.
Make an application
For existing licence renewals, please visit our renewals page.