HMO Licence and Regulations: Who Needs One, What the Inspector Checks and the Works to Pass

What an HMO licence is and who needs one

A house in multiple occupation is a building, or part of one, let to people from more than one household as their main home. They share a toilet, washing or cooking facilities. That is the standard test in section 254 of the Housing Act 2004. Three friends renting a house together are an HMO. So are bedsits.

Mandatory licensing applies to any HMO occupied by five or more people forming two or more households. Since 1 October 2018 the old three-storey test has gone, so a two-storey terrace with five sharers needs a licence. The one exception is a purpose-built flat in a block of three or more flats.

Councils can go further. Under section 56 of the Act a council can designate an additional licensing scheme for smaller HMOs, usually three or four sharers. It can cover the whole borough or part of it. Camden, Hackney, Havering and Hillingdon all run borough-wide schemes in 2026. The table later in this guide lists the ones we checked.

Each HMO needs its own licence, and the licence holder or manager must be a fit and proper person. The council can refuse, grant for a shorter term, or attach conditions that require work before a date. Those conditions are where most of the cost sits.

HMO room sizes and the standards the inspector checks

Every licence granted since 1 October 2018 must carry the national minimum bedroom sizes. They are measured wall to wall, and any floor under a ceiling lower than 1.5 m does not count. A room under 4.64 m² cannot be a bedroom at all.

The licence also states the maximum number of people in each room and in the house. Where a new licence sets a room-size condition, the council gives you time to comply. That period cannot be longer than 18 months.

The national figures are a floor, not a target. Most councils publish their own amenity standards: how many bathrooms, WCs, basins, cookers and sinks each number of occupants needs. Many set larger bedroom sizes too. The inspector measures against that schedule. Ask for it before you plan a layout, and expect the kitchen to be the room that fails.

Waste is a condition too. Where the council runs a storage and disposal scheme for HMOs, the licence requires you to follow it. That usually means bin stores sized for the number of occupants.

HMO fire regulations: alarms, fire doors and escape routes

Fire in an HMO sits under two laws. The Housing Act 2004 covers the house through the licence conditions and the HMO Management Regulations 2006. The Fire Safety Order 2005 covers the structure, the common parts and the doors onto them. It applies where a building holds more than one set of domestic premises.

Councils and fire services use the LACORS housing fire safety guidance of 2008 as the benchmark for both.

The guidance scales the precautions with the house. Here is what it sets for the common types.

Grade D means mains-powered alarms with battery back-up, interlinked. LD3 covers the escape route only; LD2 adds the rooms where a fire is likely to start. Grade A is a panel system with its own standby supply.

On top of the physical works, the manager has duties. The Management Regulations require the escape routes kept clear and in repair, and the alarms and extinguishers in working order. Escape-route notices must be displayed where there are more than four occupiers.

The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Regulations add two more rules. A smoke alarm on every storey with living accommodation. A carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance other than a gas cooker.

HMO electrical requirements, gas safety and the other certificates

The electrical rule is the same for every private rented home in England. A qualified person must inspect and test the installation at least every five years, or sooner if the last report says so. Tenants get the report within 28 days and the council within seven days of a request. Any remedial work must be finished within 28 days.

The licence adds a condition that every installation is in proper working order and safe.

Gas appliances and flues are checked every 12 months by an engineer in a class approved by the Health and Safety Executive. Tenants get a copy of the record within 28 days. The licence requires a certificate less than 12 months old, and the council will ask for it every year.

The licence conditions also cover furniture and appliances you supply, which must be safe, and the alarms, which must be installed and kept working. Keep the certificates together. The inspector asks for the gas record, the electrical report, the alarm commissioning certificate and the fire risk assessment in one go.

HMO licence fees, how long it lasts and how the process runs

Each council sets its own fee, and most split it into an application part and a grant part. Haringey charges £1,360 for a full HMO licence under its 2024 to 2029 scheme. That is £618 on application and £742 before the licence is issued, plus £50 per unit above five.

Croydon's additional HMO licence under its 2026 scheme is £1,250, or £850 for a one-year licence. Budget £1,000 to £1,500 per house in London and check the borough's page for the exact figure.

A licence runs for up to five years. The council can grant a shorter term where it has concerns about the management or condition of the house. A licence cannot be transferred to a new owner.

The process is the same everywhere.

1. Apply online with the floor plans, the gas and electrical certificates, the fire risk assessment and the manager's details. Pay the application part of the fee.
2. Inspection. An officer measures the rooms, counts the amenities and walks the escape route. Some councils inspect before granting, others within the licence term.
3. Draft licence. The council proposes the maximum occupancy and any conditions with dates. A new kitchen within 12 months, say, or a fire door schedule within six.
4. Grant. Pay the second part of the fee. The licence and its conditions are then enforceable.

A valid application that is still being decided is a defence to the offence of running an unlicensed HMO. Apply before you let, not after the council writes.

Penalties for an unlicensed HMO

Controlling or managing an HMO that should be licensed is a criminal offence under section 72 of the Housing Act 2004. On conviction the court can impose a fine with no upper limit.

The council can instead impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000 for each offence, a figure raised from £30,000 on 1 May 2026. It cannot do both for the same conduct.

Tenants, or the council where it paid the rent, can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order. Since 1 May 2026 that can cover up to two years' rent, up from 12 months.

Breaching a licence condition or letting to more people than the licence allows are offences too. Since May 2026 a landlord has a reasonable-excuse defence, and a person who did not know the premises were an HMO can show that. Neither helps a landlord who read the inspection letter and did nothing.

London boroughs with additional HMO licensing

These are the borough-wide additional licensing schemes we checked on the council's own notice on 2 November 2026. Others exist, and schemes are renewed every five years, so the only safe check is the borough's property licensing page.

If your house is in one of these boroughs and has three sharers, you need a licence now. The same room, fire and amenity standards apply as for a five-person house.

The works that pass an HMO inspection, and what they cost

The schedule in a draft licence reads the same across London. These are the works that come up on nearly every one.

1. Fire doors and a protected route. FD30 doorsets with closers and strips to every risk room, and 30-minute fire-resisting construction to the stair where the house is three storeys or more.
2. Interlinked alarm system. Grade D mains alarms on every floor, a heat alarm in the kitchen, with emergency lighting where the route is long or complex.
3. Kitchen to the amenity schedule. More cooking points, sinks, worktop and storage once the headcount passes the council's threshold, or a second kitchen.
4. Bathrooms. An extra bathroom or en-suites so the ratio of occupants to WCs and showers meets the standard.
5. Room changes. Walls moved so every bedroom clears its minimum, and a box room under 4.64 m² turned into a store or a bathroom.
6. Electrical remedials. Everything coded on the report, often a new consumer unit and extra circuits for the kitchen.
7. Fire-stopping. Compartmentation between floors and around services, especially above kitchens and in cellars.
8. The small items. Thumb-turn locks, fire blanket, extinguisher, escape-route notices, window restrictors and bin stores.

What the works cost

We take on construction from £100,000 to £10M and above. Our fit is a whole-house HMO conversion, a commercial building becoming an HMO, or a portfolio of houses with schedules to meet. A single fire door is better served by a local joiner, and we say so on the call.

On an occupied house, doors, alarms and electrics are weeks of phased work around tenants. A back-to-brick conversion with new kitchens and bathrooms is months, and the council's 18-month compliance period is the hard stop. Our guide to converting a house into flats in London covers the planning and space standards side of a bigger scheme.

How we get an HMO through its licence inspection

Craftex started in 2016 as a carpentry and joinery company, and around 60% of our labour is still in-house. Fire doors, linings, partitions and kitchens are our own trades, not a chain of subcontractors. This is how an HMO job runs with us.

1. Send the letter. The council's draft licence or schedule of works, its amenity standard and your floor plans.
2. Survey. We measure every room wall to wall and test the ceiling heights. We walk the escape route, open the consumer unit and check the kitchen against the schedule.
3. One fixed price. A scope matched line by line to the council's list, so nothing on the schedule is missed and nothing off it is charged.
4. Phased works. Doors and alarms room by room where the house is let; a clear programme where it is empty.
5. Certificates. Electrical report, alarm commissioning, gas record and building control completion, handed over in one pack for the council.

Where to start

If the house is not yet an HMO, the same team handles the change of use planning permission and the design. For a house you let as a single home, our home renovation and refurbishment team covers the works.

Either way, start with the letter. Send us the inspection letter and you will have a price before the council's date.