Room sizes in licensed HMOs are not guidance and not a council preference. Since October 2018 they are mandatory conditions of every HMO licence in England, imposed by regulations, and a council cannot license below them.
The national minimums
From the Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Mandatory Conditions of Licences) (England) Regulations 2018, the floor area of any room used as sleeping accommodation must be:
| Used by | Minimum floor area |
|---|---|
| One person aged over 10 | 6.51 m² |
| Two persons aged over 10 | 10.22 m² |
| One person aged under 10 | 4.64 m² |
And a hard floor beneath all of it: a room below 4.64 m² cannot be used as sleeping accommodation at all.
The ceiling height rule people miss
Any part of the room where the ceiling is under 1.5 metres does not count towards the floor area.
This is what catches attic and dormer rooms. A loft room measuring 8 m² on the floor plan can fall below 6.51 m² of countable area once the sloping sections are excluded — and the room the tape measure says is fine is then unlettable as a bedroom.
What the licence itself must say
The regulations require the licence to specify:
- the number of rooms in the HMO suitable as sleeping accommodation, and
- for each, the maximum number of persons who may sleep in it, by age band.
Exceeding the number on your own licence is a breach of a licence condition — enforceable by civil penalty, and one of the easiest breaches for an officer to establish. See HMO conditions breaches.
The licence holder must also notify the council within 7 days of becoming aware that a room is being used in breach of the condition.
These are minimums, not standards
The 2018 figures are a floor. Councils commonly attach their own, higher amenity standards as licence conditions, and they vary genuinely between authorities:
- Larger rooms — 8 m² or 10 m² single-occupancy minimums are common in high-demand areas.
- Amenity ratios — how many occupiers per WC, per bath or shower, per wash-hand basin, and per set of kitchen facilities. A typical shape is one bathroom per four or five occupiers, but it is a local condition, not a national rule.
- Kitchen provision — worktop length, sink numbers, hob rings, fridge and freezer capacity per person, and storage volume per person.
- Room use restrictions — whether a kitchen-diner counts towards communal space.
Read your own council’s standards before you buy or convert. The difference between a 6.51 m² national minimum and a 10 m² local condition is the difference between a six-bed HMO and a four-bed one, and it is set locally.
Wales
The 2018 mandatory conditions regulations are an England instrument. Welsh councils set room and amenity standards through their own licensing conditions and published standards rather than that national minimum, so the figures above should not be quoted for a Welsh property. See HMO licensing in Wales and the divergence map.
Overcrowding is a separate power
Room size conditions sit alongside, not instead of, the council’s overcrowding and HHSRS powers. A property can meet every room-size condition and still attract an improvement notice for a crowding and space hazard.
Standards are local. Positions are on record. Find your council and its licensing page.
Information tool, not legal advice.