HMO Licence in Tower Hamlets: Fee, Who Needs One and How to Apply

The fee, from Tower Hamlets’s own page

'Mandatory HMO Licensing fee. Application Fee: New and renewal online application fee £977. New and renewal online application split fee Part A £453.50, Part B £583.50. Postal application full payment £1,147.' (Postal split fee not fully captured in this excerpt.)

Online flat fee (£977) confirmed verbatim, same for new and renewal; a higher postal-application fee (£1,147) also shown.

Tower Hamlets’s new-licence fee sits below the median of the 34 councils whose fee we could read from their own pages (£1,364). The cheapest verified is Islington at £288 and the dearest Lambeth at £2,530; fee structures differ — some charge per room or in occupancy bands, so a large HMO can cost far more than the headline figure above.

Who needs a licence in Tower Hamlets

The national rule is the same everywhere in England and Wales — gov.uk: “You must have a licence if you’re renting out a large HMO in England or Wales. Your property is defined as a large HMO if all of the following apply: it is rented to 5 or more people who form more than 1 household; some or all tenants share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities; at least 1 tenant pays rent (or their employer pays it for them).” … “A licence is valid for a maximum of 5 years. You must renew your licence before it runs out. You need a separate licence for each HMO you run.” Whether a smaller shared house needs a licence depends on whether the council runs an additional or selective scheme:

Additional licensing (smaller HMOs): yes. Scheme dates: from 2024-04-01 to 2029-03-31. Fee £1,323. Check the scheme map before letting to three or four sharers.

Selective licensing (all private lets in an area): not confirmed either way on the pages we read — check the council’s licensing pages before letting to fewer than five.

Letting a licensable HMO without a licence is an offence; the penalties, rent repayment orders and the fee’s tax treatment are on the HMO licence in England guide.

The Tower Hamlets numbers around an HMO

• How many HMOs: the council estimated 9,000 HMOs in Tower Hamlets, of which 924 were mandatory-licensable and 765 licences had been issued (LAHS 2024-25, MHCLG) — every council’s figures.
• Rents: the average 4+-bedroom rent in Tower Hamlets is £3,360 a month (ONS, July 2026) against £2,439 across all sizes — rents, prices and yield in Tower Hamlets.
• EPC: 16% of EPCs lodged here in the last year were below band C, the level a rented home needs by 1 October 2030 (EPC ratings in Tower Hamlets).
• Council tax: Band D is £1,838 for 2026/27; in an HMO let room by room the landlord is usually the liable person (council tax in Tower Hamlets).

How to apply

Applications go to the council, not to a national body. Have the floor plans, gas and electrical certificates, fire-safety details and the manager’s details ready; most councils take a non-refundable first payment on submission and the balance on grant (the quote above shows where Tower Hamlets splits its fee, if it does).

Apply or check on Tower Hamlets’s site

All councils compared · Student HMOs and Ground 4A · Renters’ Rights Act rules