Mandatory vs Additional vs Selective Licensing London

England operates three parallel property licensing regimes under the Housing Act 2004, and the single biggest source of confusion we encounter on the Emergency Repairs London licensing desk is landlords assuming the three schemes are alternatives. They are not. They are independent, can apply at the same time, and they each have their own trigger, fee scale, designation lifecycle and enforcement teeth.

The three schemes are mandatory HMO licensing (a national statutory floor), additional HMO licensing (a borough extension that captures smaller HMOs) and selective licensing (a borough scheme that captures all privately rented property in a designated area, HMO or not). Across the 32 London boroughs the picture changes constantly — designations expire, new ones are consulted on, boundaries are redrawn — so the licensing status of an address in 2024 is not necessarily its status in 2026. This page decodes the three schemes, sets out how they interact, and tells you how to find out which ones apply to your property today.

Three Parallel Schemes Under One Act

All three regimes sit under the Housing Act 2004, but in different parts of the Act. Mandatory licensing is in Part 2 and applies automatically across England with no local discretion. Additional licensing is enabled by Section 56 and requires the borough to formally designate the scheme. Selective licensing is enabled by Sections 79–84 and likewise requires borough designation, public consultation and (for schemes above the 20% size threshold) Secretary of State confirmation. The schemes share a common enforcement framework, a common penalty regime and a common five-year licence duration, but the trigger criteria, the property scope and the geographical reach differ sharply.

Mandatory Licensing — The Statutory Floor

Mandatory HMO licensing is the only one of the three schemes that applies nationally. Every borough in England must license every property meeting the trigger criteria — there is no opt-out, no designation requirement and no consultation.

The trigger

The mandatory trigger since the 2018 reform is simple: a property is a licensable HMO if it is occupied by five or more persons forming two or more households, and the occupants share at least one basic amenity (kitchen, bathroom or toilet) or the property lacks a self-contained unit per household. The previous "three or more storeys" requirement was removed in October 2018, which brought tens of thousands of two-storey HMOs into the mandatory regime overnight.

A "household" in this context means a single person, a couple (married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting), a family unit (parents and children, siblings) or members of staff living with their employer. Five students from different families is two-plus households. Five members of one extended family is one household and not an HMO.

Fees and duration

Fees vary by borough but typically fall between £750 and £2,600 across London for a standard five-year mandatory licence, with most boroughs charging a per-bedroom or per-occupant uplift above the base fee. The application is split into a Part A (processing) and Part B (issue) fee under the Cardiff judgment, so the headline number on the borough's website is usually the combined total. Renewal is at five years.

Our service page on HMO licensing London sets out the full borough-by-borough fee schedule and the compliance bundle (EICR, gas safety certificate, fire-risk assessment, fire-alarm commissioning certificate, emergency-lighting test, room-size schedule, EPC) that every borough licensing team will ask for at application stage.

Additional Licensing — Borough Extension to Smaller HMOs

Additional licensing under Section 56 of the Housing Act 2004 extends the HMO licensing regime to smaller HMOs that fall below the mandatory five-person threshold but still meet the HMO definition. The typical additional trigger is three or four unrelated occupants from two or more households, although some borough schemes capture all HMOs of any size including two-person HMOs.

How a borough designates a scheme

A borough must consult publicly for at least ten weeks, evidence the housing conditions or management failings in the proposed area, and (for any scheme covering more than 20% of the borough's geographical area or more than 20% of its privately rented stock) obtain Secretary of State confirmation. The designation lasts a maximum of five years from the start date, after which the borough must consult and re-designate or let the scheme lapse.

Active London schemes in 2026

The picture changes monthly, but as of mid-2026 borough-wide or near-borough-wide additional schemes are in force in Newham, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Croydon, Brent (partial), Enfield, Haringey, Hackney, Lewisham, Southwark, Camden (partial), Islington and Lambeth, with smaller ward-specific schemes in several other boroughs. Each scheme has its own start and end date, fee scale and condition schedule — a Newham additional licence is not the same document as a Tower Hamlets additional licence and the fee can differ by hundreds of pounds.

The borough's online licensing register and the designation map on the borough's housing pages are the only authoritative sources. Letting agents and previous landlords get this wrong constantly. We see properties bought on the assurance that "no licence is needed here" only for the borough to issue a civil penalty within six months of completion.

Selective Licensing — All Private Rentals in Designated Areas

Selective licensing under Sections 79–84 of the Housing Act 2004 is the broadest of the three regimes in scope but the narrowest in geography. It catches every privately rented home in the designated area — not just HMOs, but single-family lets, couples, one-person flats, everything in the private rented sector. It does not apply to social housing, owner-occupied property or holiday lets.

Statutory grounds

A borough cannot designate selective licensing across the whole borough without evidencing at least one of six statutory grounds: low housing demand, significant and persistent anti-social behaviour, poor property conditions, high levels of migration, high levels of deprivation, or high levels of crime. The consultation and Secretary of State thresholds are the same as for additional licensing — schemes above 20% need confirmation.

Active London schemes in 2026

Selective licensing is in force in Newham (whole borough since 2013, re-designated in 2018 and again in 2023, the longest-running scheme in England), Waltham Forest (whole borough, current designation running to 2025-2030 depending on ward), Tower Hamlets (current designation expires September 2026 — landlords in the borough should be tracking the consultation outcome closely), Croydon (designated wards, scheme running), Brent (partial selective in specified wards), and smaller designations in Enfield, Haringey, Lewisham and Southwark. Several other boroughs have consultations open at any one time.

Because selective licensing catches every private rental in the area, the volume of licensable properties is enormous — Newham's scheme alone licenses roughly 40,000 properties — and the borough enforcement teams are well-funded from the fee income.

Can Multiple Schemes Apply at Once?

This is where most landlords trip up. The schemes can overlap geographically, but a given property only ever needs one licence at a time, and which one depends on the property's occupancy and the borough's active designations.

The hierarchy

The rule the legislation establishes is a simple hierarchy. Mandatory beats additional beats selective. If a property meets the mandatory trigger (five or more occupants, two or more households) it needs a mandatory HMO licence and is automatically exempt from any additional or selective scheme that would otherwise cover the address. If it meets the additional trigger but not the mandatory one (three or four occupants, two or more households) and the borough has an additional scheme in force, it needs an additional HMO licence and is exempt from any selective scheme in the area. If it is a single-family let, couple or one-person flat in a selective area, it needs a selective licence.

Worked example

Consider a five-bedroom Victorian terrace in Newham. Newham operates both an additional HMO scheme and a borough-wide selective scheme. If the property is let to five unrelated young professionals (five persons, five households), it is a mandatory HMO and needs a mandatory licence. It is exempt from both Newham additional and Newham selective. If the same property is reconfigured into four bedrooms and let to four unrelated people (four persons, four households), it is below the mandatory threshold but above the additional threshold, so it needs a Newham additional HMO licence. It is exempt from Newham selective. If it is then let as a single family to a couple with two children, it is not an HMO at all, but it is in Newham's selective area, so it needs a selective licence.

One property, three different licensing outcomes, depending entirely on who lives there. The licensing status follows the use, not the building.

Renewal Cycles and Designation Reviews

All three regimes operate on a five-year cycle, but the cycle means different things in each:

• Mandatory — the licence itself lasts up to five years. The scheme itself is permanent; you renew the licence on or before expiry.
• Additional — the licence lasts up to five years. The borough's designation also lasts up to five years, after which the borough must consult and re-designate. If the borough lets the designation lapse, existing licences expire on their stated date and no new ones are required.
• Selective — same as additional. The licence is five-year. The designation is five-year. The borough must re-consult if it wants to extend.

For landlords this means two diary dates per property — the licence expiry (a fixed date on the certificate) and the designation expiry (a moving date published by the borough). Both need to be tracked. We do this for clients as part of our HMO compliance checks London service, alongside the annual EICR, gas safety and fire-alarm test cycle.

Penalties — Identical Across All Three Schemes

The Housing Act 2004 (as amended by the Housing and Planning Act 2016) sets the enforcement regime, and it applies identically across all three licensing schemes. Operating an unlicensed property under any of the three regimes is a criminal offence and exposes the landlord to:

• Civil penalty up to £30,000 per offence — issued by the borough without prosecution. A property with no licence, no fire-risk assessment, no current EICR and no gas safety certificate is four separate offences, which can stack.
• Unlimited fine on conviction — if the borough prosecutes rather than issuing a civil penalty, the magistrates' court has no upper limit on the fine.
• Rent-repayment order up to twelve months — tenants can apply to the First-tier Tribunal to recover up to twelve months of rent already paid while the property was unlicensed. The order is enforced as a civil debt.
• Banning Order — under the Housing and Planning Act 2016, serious or repeat offenders can be banned from being a landlord nationally for a minimum of twelve months. The ban is published on the national Rogue Landlord Database.
• Loss of Section 21 — a landlord cannot serve a Section 21 no-fault eviction notice while the property is required to be licensed and is not. The eviction route remains blocked until a licence is in place.

The fire-safety overlay sits on top of all of this. A licensed HMO without a compliant Grade A or Grade D1 fire-alarm system to BS 5839-6 can have its licence revoked on top of any penalties. Our HMO fire-risk assessment London service covers the PAS 79 assessment that every borough licensing team requires at application.

How to Find Out Which Scheme Applies to Your Property

Three checks, in order:

1. The borough's online licensing register — every borough publishes a searchable register of licensed properties. If the address is on the register, it is licensed and the certificate is in force. If the address is not on the register but the borough operates a scheme covering it, the property is unlicensed and at risk.
2. The borough's designation map and current schemes page — confirm whether additional or selective designations are in force at the address, and check the designation end date.
3. A direct call to the borough's private-housing team — for the avoidance of doubt, the licensing officers will confirm in writing what the property needs. Keep the email.

The wider compliance picture — EICR, gas safety, fire-risk assessment, emergency lighting, EPC — is set out on our landlord compliance hub. Licensing is the wrapper; the certificates listed on that hub are the contents the borough will demand on application.

For the EICR and fire-alarm side of the licensing bundle, our companion service pages cover the borough-specific evidence requirements in detail. The for landlords portal collects the full set of compliance services and pricing in one place.

Not sure which scheme applies? Call Emergency Repairs London on 0207 046 1363 or WhatsApp 07456 975436 with the property address and the current tenancy arrangement. We will tell you within the same working day which of the three schemes catches the property, what the licence fee will be at the relevant borough, and which certificates you will need to submit with the application.

FAQs

The FAQ schema at the foot of this page covers: whether mandatory and additional licences can both apply, whether selective and HMO licensing are the same, how to check if a borough has additional licensing in force, whether additional licensing reaches single-family lets, why selective licensing varies between boroughs, and what happens if a borough finds an unlicensed property.

Save the number now — 0207 046 1363 or WhatsApp 07456 975436. Get licensing right the first time and you keep the Section 21 route, the insurance cover and the rent.

John Alexander N. — Director, Emergency Repairs London