Additional HMO licensing in Southampton

Common questions

What the designation says

Southampton operates an additional licensing scheme covering nine wards: Banister and Polygon, Bevois, Bargate, Portswood, Swaythling, Bassett, Freemantle, Shirley and Millbrook. The designation runs for five years, from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2030. It requires all smaller houses in multiple occupation, meaning those with fewer than five occupants, and HMOs within purpose-built accommodation blocks to be licensed within the designated wards. That brings smaller shared homes into licensing below the five-occupant threshold of the national mandatory regime. Landlords had three months from the scheme starting on 1 October 2025 to apply; applications after that window attract a higher fee. Mandatory HMO licensing continues to apply separately wherever a property is let to five or more people forming two or more households. The scheme covers nine wards rather than the whole city, so an address should be checked against the designation rather than assumed from its postcode.

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 £40,000 per offence and a rent repayment order of up to two years' rent. Both maxima apply to conduct on or after 1 May 2026; before that date they were £30,000 and twelve months. Section 21 was abolished on 1 May 2026 and possession now runs through the amended section 8 grounds. Mandatory HMO licensing applies separately and everywhere, wherever a property is let to five or more people forming two or more households.

Southampton's own licensing page →