Additional HMO licensing in Rhondda Cynon Taf

What the designation says

Rhondda Cynon Taf operates a borough-wide additional licensing scheme. The Additional Licensing (Houses in Multiple Occupation) Scheme 2024 came into effect on 1 April 2024 and lasts five years, to 31 March 2029, replacing the 2019 designation. From 1 April 2024 all houses in multiple occupation in the borough require a licence under it, so the scheme reaches well below the mandatory threshold: large HMOs of three storeys or more with five or more tenants in two or more households continue to be regulated under mandatory licensing, and everything else falls to the additional scheme. Some form of additional licensing has run in the county borough since 2006, introduced to secure satisfactory management and physical standards where landlords were not acting on persistent anti-social behaviour; the council reports the scheme has removed 796 category 1 and 2 hazards from 346 properties. Licences are normally granted for up to five years, and licences issued under the previous scheme were carried over rather than cancelled. Applications are online only. Separately from all of this, every landlord and agent in Wales must be registered and licensed with Rent Smart Wales under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, which is a national requirement and not a discretionary local scheme.

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.

Rhondda Cynon Taf's own licensing page →