An HMO or selective licence pack costs from £475 at Fixed Fee Plans. We visit, measure, draw scaled floor plans with every room area marked, and complete your council's licence form from the survey. The council's own licence fee is set by the council and paid to it.
Licensing is a paperwork problem with a measuring problem inside it. The form asks for room sizes, the plan has to match them, and the council compares both against minimum areas. A landlord who estimates a bedroom at 7m² and finds it is 6.2m² has a licence application that fails on facts, not on effort.
Do I need an HMO licence?
Probably, if five or more people from two or more households share facilities. The 2018 Order sets the mandatory test at five or more people living in two or more separate households, and GOV.UK adds that you may still need a licence for a smaller house, depending on the area. That second case is why councils run additional and selective schemes.
Under section 80 of the Housing Act 2004, a local housing authority may designate its whole district, or an area in it, as subject to selective licensing. Some London boroughs have, in whole or part, so a two-bed rented flat can need a licence in one street and not the next. Check your council's current scheme before you assume. We confirm which licence applies at the start, and the answer does not depend on whether you buy our pack. Our HMO planning guide covers the separate planning question, and our HMO drawings service handles the change of use.
What do the floor plans have to show?
Every room, its use, and its floor area. Councils usually want a scaled plan of each floor with rooms numbered, sleeping rooms marked with the number of occupants, and kitchens, bathrooms and WCs identified. Many also ask for fire doors, detectors and escape routes. Our fire strategy plan goes further than the licence plan when a council wants one.
The key number is room size. Under the 2018 mandatory conditions, a licence must require that a sleeping room used by one person over 10 is at least 6.51m², and one used by two people at least 10.22m². A room under 4.64m² may not be used for sleeping at all. We flag every room that falls short on the plan, before you submit, so you can reduce the number of occupants or change the use, and not find out from a refusal.
What does it cost, and what does the council charge?
Our fee is from £475, and it is a floor: a larger house or a block with several units is quoted in writing from your address. The council's licence fee is its own. Section 63 of the Housing Act 2004 lets the authority require a fee that it fixes, and GOV.UK confirms the fee is set by the council, so it varies between boroughs. We never add it to ours.
Compared with the alternative it is small. GOV.UK says you could get an unlimited fine for renting out an unlicensed HMO, and a licence is valid for a maximum of five years, so the cost is a one-off in the cycle. If you only need the floor plans for a council that does not ask us to complete the form, our landlord and selective licence floor plans service is the lighter option.
What if a room is too small?
Then you decide before the council does. The options are to cut the occupancy of that room, to use it for something other than sleeping, or to change the layout. The first two cost nothing in drawings. The third may need building regulations drawings, and our building regulations service at £545 drawings + £150 survey (£695 total) prepares them.
We do not move walls on paper to make a room pass, and we do not state that a room meets the minimum when the survey says otherwise. A licence application is a signed declaration, and an overstated area is the landlord's problem, not ours. Tell us the number of people you intend to house in each room and we tell you honestly whether the plan supports it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a licence for a house share of four?
Not under the mandatory scheme, which starts at five people in two or more households. But an additional or selective licensing scheme in your borough may still require one. Check with your council before you let.
How much does the licence cost?
The council sets its own licence fee, and it differs by borough. Our fee for the measured visit, plans and completed form is from £475, paid to us separately.
What size does a bedroom have to be in an HMO?
At least 6.51m² for one adult, 10.22m² for two adults, and 4.64m² for one child under 10, under the 2018 mandatory conditions. Your council may publish further standards of its own, so check its scheme.
Can you complete the form without a visit?
No. The form asks for measured facts, and we do not guess at room sizes. The visit is how the plan and the form agree with each other.