HMO Licence Checker — Do You Need One, and What Will It Cost?

Two different numbers decide whether a shared house needs an HMO licence, and most confusion online comes from mixing them up. A property becomes an HMO in law at 3 or more people forming 2 or more households sharing a toilet, bathroom or kitchen (Housing Act 2004, s.254). It only becomes a large HMO needing a mandatory licence at 5 or more people forming 2 or more households sharing those facilities with at least one paying rent — and, since a 2018 order, it makes no difference how many storeys the building has. This checker tests both thresholds, adds what your council has confirmed about additional or selective licensing on top, and the cost of getting it wrong.

The mandatory threshold, and the one people forget changed

Before 1 October 2018, a large HMO in England also had to be at least three storeys tall — a genuinely two-storey house with five unrelated sharers fell outside mandatory licensing. The Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Prescribed Description) (England) Order 2018 removed the storey condition entirely: gov.uk’s current wording lists only the occupant count, the household count and shared facilities. A landlord going on outdated advice, or a pre-2018 forum post, is the single most common way people end up letting an unlicensed HMO without realising it.

Below five: still an HMO, maybe still licensable

Meeting the 3-person, 2-household test makes a property an HMO with the usual safety duties, even below the 5-person licensing line. Whether it also needs a licence below that line depends on the council: additional licensing extends mandatory-style licensing to smaller HMOs in a defined area, and selective licensing covers any private rental in a designated area, HMO or not. Of the 58 English councils here, 31 have confirmed additional licensing and 23 selective; others either run a scheme not yet verified from a primary source, or genuinely don’t — Birmingham, for instance, confirms an additional Section 257 designation for selected wards, which is why the council field matters as much as the occupant count.

Worked example

Six sharers, three households, a shared kitchen, two storeys, Manchester as the council: that clears the mandatory threshold regardless of the storey count, so the checker returns Manchester’s own published fee and flags its confirmed selective licensing scheme as worth checking against the exact address. Drop the occupants to four with the same households and facilities and the answer flips: no longer a large HMO nationally, though still an HMO in law, with Manchester’s additional or selective position now the deciding question.

What a licence actually costs

There is no national HMO fee — each council sets its own, banded or flat or a two-part application-then-inspection charge. This checker shows the figure for 34 of the 58 English councils where we could read an exact new-application fee directly from the council’s own page; where we couldn’t — a broken PDF link, a JavaScript-loaded table, or simply not yet checked — it says so and points to the council’s page and gov.uk’s own licence-finder rather than inventing a number. The full council-by-council table, with fee structure and licence length, is on HMO licence fees by council.

The cost of getting it wrong

Running a licensable HMO without one carries three risks that stack. Prosecution: gov.uk states plainly you could get an unlimited fine. A civil penalty, the more commonly used alternative to prosecution: MHCLG confirms the maximum rose from £30,000 to £40,000 for offences on or after 1 May 2026, so £40,000 is the current cap. And a rent repayment order: gov.uk’s tenant guidance says an RRO can require repaying up to two years’ rent, applied for within two years of the offence — an unlicensed HMO is a qualifying offence. Work the cash terms out on the rent repayment order calculator.

Fee deductible, penalty not

An HMO licence fee, and the certificates it conditions on (gas safety, electrical, fire doors), are normal deductible running costs — see allowable expenses and the rental income tax calculator. A civil penalty is not: HMRC’s manual states “penalties incurred for breaching the law are not allowable” — the cost of not having a licence can’t be shared with the tax system the way the cost of getting one can.

What this checker does not do

It tests the mandatory threshold and what a council has confirmed about additional/selective licensing and fees; it doesn’t replace applying, check planning permission (a change of use can need an Article 4 direction’s permission — see what is an HMO?), or the physical conditions a council inspection tests. England only: Wales runs the same mandatory threshold but its own additional/selective licensing, and Scotland has a different registration regime entirely.

Mandatory threshold and fine: gov.uk: house in multiple occupation licence. Storey rule removed: SI 2018/221, in force 1 October 2018. Base HMO definition: Housing Act 2004, s.254. Civil penalty: gov.uk/MHCLG: civil penalties under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (£30,000 cap for offences to 30 Apr 2026, £40,000 from 1 May 2026). Rent repayment orders: gov.uk: guidance for tenants. Penalties not deductible: HMRC Business Income Manual BIM38515. All five read verbatim 13 September 2026. Council fees and licensing schemes: each council’s own page, read 5–6 September 2026 (site/data/hmo/councils.json; see the licence fees by council page for every source link). General information, not advice — confirm with your own council before letting.