HMO licensing: mandatory, additional and selective licences, and how to check your home
Some houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) need a licence wherever they are in England; others need one only because the council has chosen to license them. This guide covers the three kinds of licence, what they cost to miss, and how to find out which applies to your home.
What counts as an HMO
An HMO is a building or flat where people who aren't one household live as their main home, at least one of them pays rent, and they share a toilet, bathroom or kitchen (or lack one). GOV.UK describes it as a home rented by at least 3 people, sometimes called a house share; the Act sets no minimum number of occupiers, and only the licensing rules count heads (5 for a mandatory licence).
People are one household if they're all one family: a couple (married, civil partners, or living together as if they were) and their relatives (parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece or cousin; half-blood relations count, and a stepchild counts as a child). A few other cases count too, such as a live-in carer or domestic worker who gets their room as part of the job without paying rent, and a foster child with their foster parent. Anyone else is a household of their own.
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The mandatory HMO licence
Anywhere in England, a large HMO needs a licence: one rented to 5 or more people forming more than 1 household, sharing a toilet, bathroom or kitchen, with at least 1 paying rent. A flat in a purpose-built block of three or more flats is outside the mandatory rule, though a council scheme may still cover it.
A licence lasts at most 5 years, each HMO needs its own, you must renew before it runs out, and the council sets the fee. To grant a licence the council must be satisfied that the house suits the number of people living there, and that the licence holder and the manager (you or your agent) are each fit and proper.
The council can add its own conditions, and you can appeal them to the First-tier Tribunal. You should apply yourself, though a managing agent can apply for you.
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What every licence must require
Every HMO or selective licence in England must require: an annual gas safety certificate to the council (if gas is supplied); every electrical installation kept safe; electrical appliances and furniture you supply kept in a safe condition, with your declaration of their safety to the council whenever it asks; smoke alarms on each storey with living accommodation and carbon monoxide alarms in rooms with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker, kept working, with a declaration of their condition and position on request; and a written statement of terms for the occupiers.
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Room sizes and numbers
An HMO licence must also set minimum bedroom sizes: 6.51 square metres for one person over 10, 10.22 for two, and 4.64 for a child under 10, with any room under 4.64 square metres not used for sleeping at all. Floor under a ceiling lower than 1.5 metres doesn't count towards those sizes. The licence also sets the most households or people who may live there, and a licence can't be transferred to another person.
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Additional HMO licensing
A council can designate all or part of its area for additional licensing of the kinds of HMO it names, which can include smaller ones, if the conditions in the Act are met. It must consult first, and a designation lasts no more than five years. Mandatory and additional licences are both licences under the same Part of the Housing Act 2004, and a licence covers one HMO.
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Selective licensing
A council can also designate all or part of its area for selective licensing, if the conditions in the Act are met; it can take in a home let on a single tenancy, not only an HMO. An HMO that needs an HMO licence doesn't need a selective one as well. Since 23 December 2024 councils haven't needed government confirmation to make a selective scheme of any size, though to use that approval they must consult for at least 10 weeks.
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Licensed or not: the management rules
Every HMO in England, licensed or not, falls under the HMO management regulations, apart from certain converted blocks of flats. The manager (you, or your agent if they run the house) must give each household their name, address and any phone number, and display them in a prominent place. Breaking the management rules is an offence; the government's guidance to councils sets a £3,000 starting point for not giving occupiers this information.
What it costs to miss
Letting an HMO that needs a licence without one is an offence, and civil penalties can fall on the landlord, whoever manages or controls it, and any superior landlord. Prosecution can mean an unlimited fine. Instead, the council can impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000 for offences from 1 May 2026, when the maximum rose from £30,000; the guidance starting point for an unlicensed HMO is £17,000. Tenants can also seek a rent repayment order: up to 2 years' rent for an offence committed on or after 1 May 2026, and the old limit of 12 months for an earlier one. The council can apply for one too, for rent paid through Universal Credit. Breaking a licence condition is a separate offence. Knowingly letting more people live there than the licence allows is an offence too, with a guidance starting point of £20,000.
It's a defence that you'd already applied for a licence, or told the council of steps to stop the house needing one, while that application or notification is still effective. A reasonable excuse can be a defence too. The council can grant a temporary exemption notice for 3 months while you take those steps, and exceptionally a second.
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How to find out about your home
GOV.UK's advice is to contact your council to check whether you need a licence; you can find its website from your postcode. A council that makes an additional or selective licensing designation must publish a notice with the date it comes into force, and keep copies of the designation available while it lasts. Every council must also keep a register of the licences it has granted that are in force, open to the public at its head office.
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What Datestone does for you
The free check asks how the home is let, how many people live there and how many households they make, and says plainly when the mandatory licence is needed. The licensing pages have a page for each council we hold: each says what we've confirmed from the council's own page, with the day we confirmed it, and says so when we haven't. Keep the home on Datestone and its checklist carries the licences that apply, each with its renewal date once you've entered it, and the HMO management duties. A council licence shows as needed only where we've confirmed the scheme covers the home; where we haven't, the checklist tells you to ask the council.