Additional HMO licensing in City of Westminster

What the designation says

Westminster operates a city-wide additional licensing scheme for houses in multiple occupation. The council has renewed it: the new designation was formally made on 21 April 2026, comes into effect on 31 August 2026 and runs until 30 August 2031, replacing the outgoing scheme without a gap. It applies across the whole of the City of Westminster and requires shared houses and flats to be licensed where three or more people from two or more households share basic amenities such as a kitchen or bathroom, which brings smaller shares within licensing below the five-occupant threshold of the national mandatory regime. Mandatory HMO licensing continues to apply separately at five or more occupants. Because Westminster also runs selective licensing across 15 of its 18 wards, a landlord should establish which scheme catches a given property: a property already licensed under a mandatory or additional HMO licence does not also need a selective licence.

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.

City of Westminster's own licensing page →