You do not need a licence if you rent your property to a single family as Hillingdon Council do not operate a selective licensing scheme.
If you rent out your property as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), the answer is a bit more complicated. Hillingdon Council operates the mandatory HMO licensing scheme that applies throughout England. There was an additional licensing scheme but that has now ended.
To help you decide if you need a licence, we’ve outlined the current and previous HMO licensing schemes below:
1. Mandatory HMO licensing
You will need a mandatory 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:
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Shared houses and flats occupied by students and young professionals;
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Properties converted into bedsits with some shared facilities; and
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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).
2. Additional licensing
There was an additional licensing scheme from 9 November 2015 to 8 November 2020, but that scheme has now ended.
The scheme applied to what the council described as the area of the borough south of the A40 but excluding the part of Heathrow Villages ward consisting of the airport itself south of the A4; the parts of Yeading and Townfield wards East of the Hayes By-Pass and the part of North Uxbridge North ward, which is North of the Uxbridge Road and East of Park Road.
The scheme applied to any property let as a House in Multiple Occupation that met the following criteria:
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It was within the geographical coverage in the scheme designation; and
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It was two storeys in height; and
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It was occupied by five or more people forming two or more households.
Most of the properties covered by the additional licensing scheme will now require a mandatory HMO licence following the widening of the licensing criteria in October 2018.