Does my property need an HMO licence?

HMO · Licensing

Does my property need
an HMO licence?

This is the question we are asked more than any other, and the honest answer is that it depends on two separate things: what the national rules say, and what your particular council has decided locally. Landlords get caught out by the second one.

First, is it an HMO at all?

A property is a House in Multiple Occupation when at least three tenants live there forming more than one household, and they share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet. “Household” means a family or a couple, so three friends renting a three-bedroom house together is an HMO, while a family of five is not. That definition catches a lot of ordinary shared houses in Fallowfield, Rusholme and Salford that landlords think of simply as a let.

Then, does it need a licence?

There are three separate licensing regimes and they stack:

• Applies across England to any HMO occupied by five or more people forming two or more households. The old “three storeys or more” condition was removed in 2018, so a five-person HMO in a two-storey terrace needs a licence just as much as one in a large townhouse.
• A council can extend licensing to smaller HMOs, typically three or four occupants, in areas it designates. Manchester and Salford have both used these powers.
• The one that surprises people. In a designated selective licensing area every private rented property needs a licence, including a single family let with one tenant. Designations are made ward by ward and they expire and get renewed, so an area that was not covered when you bought may be covered now.

What it costs to get wrong

Operating an unlicensed property that requires a licence is a criminal offence. A council can issue a civil penalty of up to £40,000 per offence (raised from £30,000 on 1 May 2026) as an alternative to prosecution, and prosecution carries an unlimited fine. Separately, the tenants or the council can apply for a Rent Repayment Order requiring you to repay up to two years’ rent (twelve months where the offence was before 1 May 2026). On a room-let HMO at £450 a room that is a genuinely serious number.

The conditions that come with the licence

A licence is not just a fee. It brings minimum room sizes (broadly 6.51m² for one person over ten, and 10.22m² where two people share), along with requirements on kitchen and bathroom provision for the number of occupants, fire doors and detection, and a fit-and-proper-person test on whoever manages the property. Bringing a house up to that standard is usually where the real cost and the real delay sit, not the application form.

Before we market an HMO we check the property against the current designations for its exact address, tell you which regime applies, and price the works needed to meet the conditions. We handle applications and renewals, and we keep the licence expiry in the same diary as your gas and electrical certificates. If you are buying, ask us before you exchange. It is a far cheaper conversation then.