There are three property licensing regimes in England and Wales, and they are routinely confused — including by councils' own websites. They rest on different sections of the Housing Act 2004, apply to different properties, and only one of them applies everywhere.
The three, side by side
| Mandatory HMO | Additional HMO | Selective |
|---|
| Where in the Act | Part 2, s.55(2) | Part 2, s.56 | Part 3, s.80 |
| Applies | Everywhere, by statute | Only where designated | Only where designated |
| Covers | HMOs let to 5+ people in 2+ households sharing facilities | Smaller HMOs the mandatory scheme misses — typically 3–4 sharers | Ordinary private lets, including single-family |
| Offence | s.72 | s.72 | s.95 |
| Max duration | Permanent | 5 years | 5 years |
| Councils we track | All 317 | 63 | 60 |
Mandatory: the one you cannot avoid by moving
Mandatory HMO licensing is national. If a property is let to five or more people forming two or more households who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet, it needs a licence — in every council in England and Wales, with no designation required. It has applied in this form since the threshold changed on 1 October 2018, when the previous three-storey condition was removed.
This is the regime most landlords have heard of, and the one they most often assume is the only one.
Additional: the same Part, a wider net
Additional licensing extends Part 2 downward, to HMOs that are too small for the mandatory scheme. It requires a designation under section 56, so it applies in some places and not others. A three-person houseshare in one borough may need a licence while the identical property in the next borough does not.
Selective: a different Part, and a different idea
Selective licensing is not about HMOs at all. It is about an area. Once a council designates under section 80, ordinary private lets in that area need a licence — a couple in a flat, a family in a terrace. The council is regulating a neighbourhood's private rented stock, not a building type.
This is where most unlicensed letting happens, because a landlord with one ordinary house has no reason to think licensing applies to them.
Can more than one apply?
Not to the same property at the same time. A property licensed under Part 2 — mandatory or additional — is excluded from selective licensing under Part 3. But a landlord with a portfolio can easily need all three across different properties, and the licences are per property, not per landlord.
What can and does happen is that a single council runs several designations at once, with different areas and different end dates. Some run more than one selective designation covering different wards, each with its own five-year clock.
Working out which applies to you
In order:
- Is it an HMO of five or more in two or more households? Then mandatory licensing applies, wherever it is.
- Is it a smaller HMO? Check whether the council has an additional designation covering it.
- Is it an ordinary let? Check whether the address falls inside a selective designation.
Our council licensing index gives the position for every council we track. Where we have not established a council's position we say so — currently 2 of 317 — rather than letting silence read as "no scheme". A blank is not a no.
The full decision path, including the exemptions, is in do I need a property licence?
Try the tool. The licence fee lookup puts all three side by side for one council: the mandatory HMO fee, and the selective and additional position with their dates.