Selective licensing in Wandsworth

What the designation says

Wandsworth operates selective licensing in two phases. The first designation covers all privately rented homes in Furzedown, South Balham, Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway. A second designation extends the scheme to further wards from April 2026. Selective licensing applies to homes occupied by a single family household or by two sharers, so an ordinary flat or house let to one family is caught; shared houses of three or more households fall under the separate additional HMO scheme instead. The fee is £850 per property and a licence normally runs for five years. The council ran an early-bird discount for the first designation and for additional licensing which closed on 31 December 2025, and a further early-bird discount for the second selective designation runs from 1 April 2026 to 1 October 2026. Because the two designations start at different times, a landlord should check their specific address against the council's property licence checker rather than assume a borough-wide position. Letting without a required licence is a criminal offence carrying a civil penalty of up to £30,000 or prosecution, and exposes the landlord to a rent repayment order.

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.

Wandsworth's own licensing page →