Mandatory HMO licensing has a hard floor: five or more people forming two or more households. Below that line, a shared house needs no licence — unless the council has designated an additional licensing scheme, in which case a three-person houseshare can need one.
We track 64 councils with an additional licensing designation in force or designated, out of 318 in England and Wales.
Where it sits in the Act
Additional licensing lives in Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004, alongside mandatory HMO licensing. The council designates an area under section 56.
This trips people up, because selective licensing is Part 3 and section 80 while additional is Part 2 and section 56. They are different powers with different tests, and a council notice citing the wrong one is a notice worth querying. Section 55 is sometimes quoted in this context and is not the designation power — it defines which HMOs Part 2 applies to.
What it covers
A designation under section 56 extends licensing to HMOs in the area that are not already caught by the mandatory scheme. In practice that usually means:
- Houses shared by three or four people forming two or more households
- Section 257 HMOs — buildings converted into self-contained flats where the conversion did not meet the 1991 Building Regulations and less than two-thirds are owner-occupied
- In some designations, all HMOs of any size in the area, restating the mandatory requirement alongside the extension
The scope is set by the designation, not by a national rule, so two neighbouring councils can draw it differently. A designation covering "all HMOs above commercial premises" is a real and narrower thing than one covering the whole borough, and we record which.
The test the council has to meet
Section 56 requires the authority to be satisfied that a significant proportion of the HMOs in the area are being managed sufficiently ineffectively as to give rise, or be likely to give rise, to problems for the occupiers or members of the public. It must consult, and it must consider whether there are other courses of action that would deal with the problem.
Since 23 December 2024, a selective designation no longer needs Secretary of State confirmation regardless of size, following the Selective Licensing General Approval 2024. Additional licensing designations have been made under a general approval for longer. The practical effect is the same in both cases: schemes can be designated faster than they used to be, and the number of live schemes is rising.
Duration
Like selective, an additional designation runs for a maximum of five years and states its own cease date. It does not renew itself. A scheme that has expired imposes no requirement, however recently the council's website was updated — and council websites are frequently behind their own instruments.
Checking your property
Two questions, in this order. First, is the property an HMO at all — three or more people forming two or more households sharing a kitchen, bathroom or toilet? Second, has the council designated an additional scheme covering it?
Our council licensing index answers the second for every council we track, with the designated areas and dates where we hold them. For the first, the statutory definition is in sections 254 to 259 of the Act, and the borderline cases — lodgers, couples, live-in landlords — turn on the detail.
If you get it wrong
Operating an unlicensed HMO that requires a licence is an offence under section 72. As with selective licensing, the council can prosecute or impose a civil penalty of up to £30,000 under section 249A, a rent repayment order can claw back up to twelve months' rent, and the property cannot be the subject of a valid section 21 notice while unlicensed.
See penalties for letting without a licence for how each of those works and what they are cited to.