Additional HMO licensing in Camden

What the designation says

Camden operates a borough-wide additional licensing scheme for houses in multiple occupation. The current designation is the third in succession: it started on 8 December 2025 and replaced the previous borough-wide scheme, which had run for five years from December 2020. A licence is required for shared homes across the borough, including house and flat shares, student housing, bedsits and some buildings converted into flats, which brings smaller shared properties within licensing well below the five-occupant threshold of the mandatory regime. Licences normally run for five years and the council opens its renewal portal thirty days before an existing licence expires, so a landlord holding a licence under the previous designation should check the expiry date on that licence rather than relying on the scheme start date. Letting a licensable HMO without a licence carries a civil penalty of up to £30,000 or prosecution, and exposes the landlord to a rent repayment order. The council renewed the scheme for a further five years, running to December 2030.

What this means for a landlord

A licence must be in place before the property is let, not applied for afterwards. Operating unlicensed in a designated area is a criminal offence: a civil penalty of up to £30,000 per offence, a rent repayment order of up to twelve months' rent, and a section 21 notice that cannot be served while the property is unlicensed. Mandatory HMO licensing applies separately and everywhere, wherever a property is let to five or more people forming two or more households.

Camden's own licensing page →