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You may need a licence for a House in Multiple Occupation if you're renting out to several tenants who aren't members of the same family.
Your property is an HMO if:
A household can be a single person, a couple or a family.
If a group of friends or professionals are sharing, each person is counted as a household. For example, a share between 5 friends would count as 5 households.
If you're changing the use of your property to an HMO, you should check if you need planning permission.
If you need a licence, you need to apply for planning permission before applying for the licence.
If you need planning permission and it isn't approved, having an HMO licence will make no difference to the decision.
You always need a licence for your HMO if 5 or more tenants are living there as more than one household.
You can find more information on GOV.UK about HMO licenses.
A new city-wide additional licensing scheme for HMOs of two or more storeys with three or four occupiers starts on 1 July 2024.
View the Notice of Designation of an Area for Additional Licensing.
From 1 July 2024 you can make applications for licences online.
Although these properties will not fall under a current licensing scheme, they are still HMOs. This means they still fall under our regulatory control with the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and the Houses of Multiple Occupation Management Regulations and we are likely to apply the same fire safety and amenity standards.
If your property is a licensed HMO, you need to make sure it meets our HMO Licensing Standards (PDF 294KB).
Your licence requires you to carry out any work needed on your property so that it meets these standards.
You can view the latest map of HMO neighbourhood concentrations in the city.
Using our online HMO licence form you can:
The Housing and New Homes Committee agreed on new fees for mandatory HMO licensing at their meeting on 20 September 2023.
These fees came in from Thursday 5 October 2023.
View the new HMO licensing fees.
A number of national changes to the licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and licensing conditions were introduced in October 2018.
From 1 October 2018, mandatory licensing is no longer limited to HMOs that are three or more storeys high, but also includes buildings with one or two storeys.
For mandatory licensing to apply, the HMO (or Flat in Multiple Occupation) must be occupied by five or more persons, from two or more separate households.
This change will mean that flats, maisonettes and 2 storey properties may require a licence if they are occupied by 5 or more people sharing. Flats situated in purpose built blocks consisting of 3 or more flats do not require a licence.
The changes took effect on 1 October 2018. Landlords of HMOs that fall under the new definition will be committing a criminal offence if they fail to apply for a licence or a temporary exemption.
HMO minimum room sizes to came into force 1 October 2018
This applies to bedrooms in licensed properties occupied by persons aged 10 and over.
The minimum size for a single bedroom is 6.51²m
The minimum room size for a double bedroom is 10.22²m
In certain situations, it may be permissible for a child under 10 to occupy a bedroom no smaller than 4.64²m
Any part of the floor area of the room at which the ceiling height is less than 1.5m, is not to be taken into account when measuring the room size.
Where a breach is found to exist, the council may provide a time period not exceeding 18 months to rectify the situation.