How to check whether your property needs a licence

· 6 min read

There is no national register of licensable properties. Whether yours needs a licence turns on three separate questions, and only the first has a UK-wide answer.

The three questions, in order

  1. Is it a large HMO? Let to five or more people forming two or more households who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet? Then it needs a mandatory HMO licence, everywhere in England and Wales, with no designation required. This one is national and you can answer it yourself.
  2. Has the council designated additional licensing? That extends licensing to smaller shared houses — typically three or four occupiers. It applies only where a council has designated it under section 56 of the Housing Act 2004.
  3. Has the council designated selective licensing? That catches ordinary single-household lets, under section 80. It is the one that surprises people, because nothing about the property itself tells you.

Questions two and three are the reason a licence check cannot be done from first principles. They depend entirely on a decision your council made, in a document, covering specific streets.

Why the council-level answer is a starting point

Designations are drawn by ward, sometimes by individual street, occasionally by census output area. Of the 318 councils in England and Wales we track, 87 operate at least one discretionary scheme — but almost none of them cover the whole council area. Croydon's new scheme covers 14 of 28 wards. Charnwood's covers two wards of Loughborough.

So "my council operates selective licensing" and "my property needs a licence" are different statements, and the gap between them is where landlords get caught.

What we can settle, and what we cannot

Our council licensing index holds a position for every council in England and Wales, and each council page shows the designation dates, the wards where we hold them, and the council's own source. Where a scheme is designated but not yet biting, the page says so and gives the date it starts.

We do not claim to know everything. We have not established a position for 178 of the 318 councils we track, and those pages say so rather than implying no scheme exists. An absence of information is not evidence of no scheme, and a page that quietly renders "no" for "we do not know" is worse than one that admits the gap.

The four-step check

  1. Answer question one yourself. Five or more occupiers in two or more households sharing facilities means a mandatory licence, full stop.
  2. Find your council on the licensing index. Read the state of each scheme — required, required from a date, not in force, or unverified.
  3. Check the specific address against the council's own designation map. We link to it on every council page. A ward name is not a boundary; the map is.
  4. If the position is unclear, ask the council in writing and keep the reply. A dated email saying no licence is required is the evidence you will want if anyone asks later.

What "not in force" does not mean

A scheme that has ceased is not a scheme. But councils re-designate, and a lapse is often a gap rather than an ending — Oxford's citywide additional scheme ended on 9 June 2026 and its replacement began on 25 June 2026, sixteen days later. If you checked in the gap you would have found no scheme and been right, and wrong again a fortnight after. We cover that in schemes in transition.

Start with the address. Our council licensing index covers all 318 councils in England and Wales, with the designation dates and the council's own source on every page.

Common questions

Is there a national register of licensable properties?

No. Mandatory HMO licensing applies nationally by statute, but additional and selective licensing exist only where an individual council has designated an area. There is no single database, which is why the answer depends on your address and your council rather than on a national lookup.

Does my council operating selective licensing mean my property needs a licence?

Not necessarily. Most designations cover part of a council area rather than all of it — Croydon's 2026 scheme covers 14 of its 28 wards. You need to check the specific address against the council's designation map, not just the council-level position.

How many councils have you not established a position for?

We have not established a discretionary licensing position for 178 of the 318 councils in England and Wales. Those pages say so explicitly rather than rendering a negative, because an absence of information is not evidence that no scheme exists.

What evidence should I keep if no licence is needed?

Ask the council in writing and keep the dated reply. If a licensing question arises later — on a sale, a section 21 notice, or a rent repayment order application — a dated confirmation from the licensing authority is worth considerably more than a recollection.

Sources

Figures about our own council records are computed when this page is built, so they cannot drift from the database. Information tool, not legal advice.

Read next

Do I need a property licence? A step-by-step check for landlords7 min readSelective licensing explained: what it is, who needs it, and how to check7 min readSchemes in transition: designated, lapsed, and the gaps in between8 min readLicence fees councils actually charge7 min read

Check a specific property. Look up your council's licensing position across all 318 councils, run the free compliance check — five questions, no sign-up — or check a document with the tenancy agreement checker.