London Borough of Bromley

There is currently one property licensing scheme operating in Bromley. We will help you choose the right licence for your property:

Mandatory HMO licence

You will need an HMO licence if your property meets the standard test, self-contained flat test or converted building test HMO definition in section 254 of the Housing Act 2004 and is occupied by five or more people.

But what are these tests and what does this mean in practice? It means you need a licence for any house or flat that is occupied by five or more people who are not all related and live in the property as their main home. For example, it includes:

• Shared houses and flats occupied by students and young professionals;
• Properties converted into bedsits with some shared facilities; and
• Properties converted into a mixture of self-contained and non self-contained accommodation. 

Prior to 1 October 2018, the mandatory HMO licensing scheme only applied to properties that were three or more storeys in height, but that restriction has now been lifted.

The government have decided to exclude purpose built self-contained flats within a block comprising three or more self-contained flats from the mandatory HMO licensing scheme. While this will be good news for some landlords, it does make the licensing scheme far more complicated.

To find out more, you can read our free guide to mandatory HMO licensing (here).

The licence application fee for a shared house occupied by five unrelated people is £1,771 (was £1,671 in 2022/23, £1,607 in 2021/22, £1,300 payable in 2020/21 and £1,000 in 2017/18).

Bromley Council charge more for higher occupancy HMOs and charge lower fees for licence renewals.

There is no mention of any discount for accredited landlords, which we think is a shame.

The fees we’ve listed are correct as of November 2023 but could be subject to change in the future. You can view the fees in full on the council’s website.

There is an online application system on the council’s website.

We offer a licence application handling service in Bromley and you can find further information here. Simply complete the online enquiry form to get the process underway.

You can find other companies offering a licence application handling service in our Landlord Suppliers Directory (here).

It is important to remember that submitting a licence application is only the start of the licence approval process. To help landlords understand what happens next, we have published a free guide here.

Yes, Bromley Council have published HMO standards which are available on the council’s website. 

The standards cover a range of issues such as kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities, fire precautions, heating, lighting, ventilation and room sizes.

It is important to note that new absolute minimum bedroom sizes for licensed HMOs have been introduced for HMO licence applications approved on or after 1 October 2018:

• 4.64m2 for a child under 10 years old
• 6.51m2 for one person over 10 years old
• 10.22m2 for two people over 10 years old

The council can still ask for larger minimum sizes. These new minimum sizes will apply throughout England to HMOs licensed under a mandatory HMO or additional licensing scheme.

In May 2019, the council told us there were 121 licensed HMOs and another 39 applications were being processed.

The Council keeps a public register of licensed HMOs that is regularly updated but cannot be viewed online. You will need to contact the council to request a copy.

In May 2019, Bromley Council told us they think there are 198 licensable HMOs in the borough. If this figure is accurate, it indicates most HMO licence applications have been submitted.

Ignore the law and you could pay a heavy price. You risk being prosecuted by the council and if found guilty you could get a criminal record, be fined an unlimited amount and ordered to pay court costs and a victim surcharge.

Alternatively, the council can issue you with a civil penalty notice of up to £30,000 for not having the correct licence without any warning being given, so this is really serious stuff.  

You could also be subject to a Rent Repayment Order and may have to repay up to 12 months rental income.

Whilst the property is unlicensed, you can’t use a Notice of Seeking Possession under Section 21 Housing Act 1988 to evict your tenants. 
  
And following a successful prosecution, you would probably fail a fit and proper person assessment, making it very difficult for you to obtain a property licence in the future.

Don’t put your livelihood and reputation at risk. Make sure you comply with the law.

In London, most boroughs publish information about housing prosecutions and civil financial penalties on the Mayor of London’s ‘Rogue landlord and agent checker’. You can search the database by entering a property address, landlord / agent name or by selecting the relevant borough, available here.

There are landlord accreditation schemes operated by the London Landlord Accreditation Scheme, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) and other organisations. 

Whilst we don’t have any figures for the NRLA scheme, we have got information about the London Landlord Accreditation Scheme that is supported by all the London Boroughs. In January 2016, they told us there were 340 accredited landlords in Bromley, which was below the average of 493 for all London boroughs.

January 2018: 360 accredited landlords
January 2019: 371 accredited landlords
January 2020: 394 accredited landlords
January 2021: 417 accredited landlords
January 2022: 751 accredited landlords

By January 2023 there were 978 accredited landlords, which is below average when compared to all the London boroughs. To find out more about becoming accredited, you can visit the London Landlord Accreditation Scheme website here.

In addition to training and development, accredited landlords are entitled to various benefits, including discounted licensing fees in some boroughs. If you are not already a member, we would encourage you to think about joining!

Bromley Council’s housing strategy (2019 – 2029) says the council intends to implement a licensing scheme covering all HMOs in the borough. It provides no further information about the timescale for doing this and to date, no detailed plans have been published. You can read the council’s housing strategy on the council’s website.

We will monitor the situation and keep you posted if anything changes.

You will need planning permission if you are changing your property from a single-family property to a house in multiple occupation (HMO) occupied by more than six people. HMOs occupied by more than six people fall within ‘sui-generis’ use for which planning permission is required. You will also need planning permission if you a splitting up a property into smaller self-contained units of accommodation.

For small HMOs, the rules are a bit more complicated. HMOs occupied and shared by between three and six people fall into planning use class C4 whereas single-family properties fall into planning use class C3.

On 1 September 2021, Bromley Council made an Immediate HMO Article 4 Direction covering the Biggin Hill and Darwin wards and a non-Immediate Direction covering the rest of the borough. There was a brief consultation on the Directions, but that ended on 14 October 2021.

This means that from 1 September 2021, you need planning permission to change a single-family property (use class C3) to a small HMO shared by three to six unrelated residents (use class C4) in the Biggin Hill and Darwin wards. In the rest of the borough, the same restrictions came into force on 1 September 2022. You can read our news article below to find out more.

Remember that this is only intended as general advice and no liability can be accepted for any reliance upon information provided. We would strongly encourage you to contact the Council’s Planning Department or seek independent legal advice before you start a new HMO development. You can find more information on the council’s website.

We certainly can. We understand the challenges of being a private landlord and so we have developed a Landlord Suppliers Directory to provide you with access to the goods and services you need. The Directory concentrates on businesses that operate in the London area.

Whether you a looking for a letting agent, want a property inventory for a new tenancy or fire risk assessment, we have got it covered – and far more besides!

As the leading experts in property licensing, we also offer a range of services ourselves. From handling the licence application process to advice on new HMO developments, we can help to ensure your property business remains compliant. If you need assistance, please drop us a line and see if we can help! 

New suppliers are regularly being added and we would encourage you to take a look. Some of our featured listings also contain YouTube videos, helping you to find out more about the business.

You can contact the council at: 

Residential Services Team
Bromley Council
Civic Centre
Stockwell Close
Bromley BR1 3UH

Email: ehts.customer@bromley.gov.uk
Tel:     0300 303 8657
Website: www.bromley.gov.uk