London Borough of Waltham Forest

Yes, most private rented properties in Waltham Forest need to be licensed.

You will need a licence if you rent your property to a single family as Waltham Forest Council have implemented a selective licensing scheme. The original scheme came into force on 1 April 2015 and lasted for five years until 31 March 2020. A replacement scheme covering most of the borough came into force on 1 May 2020.

If you rent your property as a House in Multiple Occupation, the answer is more complicated. The council operate the mandatory HMO licensing scheme that applies across England plus an additional licensing scheme that came into force on 1 April 2020. 

If you think you may need a licence, you need to decide which one. We will try to help you choose the right licence for your property:

1. Mandatory HMO licence

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:

• 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).

2. Additional licence

An additional licensing scheme started on 1 April 2020 and will remain in force until 31 March 2025.

It applies all HMOs in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, so that includes all properties shared by three or more people who are not all related and share facilities.

The council have simplified things slightly by excluding ‘section 257 HMOs: certain converted blocks of flats’ from the scheme. These are properties that:

• have been converted into self-contained flats; and
• less than two thirds of the flats are owner occupied; and
• the conversion did not comply with the relevant Building Regulations in force at that time and still does not comply.

3. Selective licence

A replacement selective licensing scheme started on 1 May 2020 and will remain in force until 30 April 2025.

The scheme applies borough wide except for properties in the Hatch Lame and Endlebury wards. 

To check which ward your property is in, you can use the postcode search facility on the council’s website.

Within the designated area, you need a selective licence if your property (house or flat) is let out to a single person, couple, single household or two unrelated sharers.

At Waltham Forest, it depends on the type of licence you are applying for.

Mandatory HMO licence
The standard fee is £1,500 (was £1,100 in 2019/20, £1,050 in 2018/19, £1,000 in 2017/18, £930 in 2016/17) for an HMO with up to eight units. Higher fee bands apply to larger properties.

Additional licence
The standard fee is £1,000 per property. The council are offering a £250 discount for early bird applications submitted between 1 April and 31 October 2020 (extended from 31 July 2020).

A lower standard fee of £750 will be charged for properties with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or above. Other discounts are available for multiple HMOs in the same building.

Selective licence 
The standard fee is £700 per property (was £650 in 2019/20, £500 in 2015/16). The council are offering a £250 discount for early bird applications submitted between 1 May and 31 October 2020 (extended from 31 July 2020). Other discounts are available for multiple applications in the same building.

The fees are correct as of May 2020 but could be subject to change in the future. You can view the latest fees on the council’s website and then click on ‘How much does a Property Licence cost’.

Waltham Forest Council have introduced a new online application system for their mandatory HMO, additional and selective licensing schemes. The online application system can be accessed via the council’s website. 

If you need assistance with your licence application, you can find companies offering a licence application handling service in our Landlord Suppliers Directory (here). Whilst we do handle some applications, we have limited capacity and specialise in more complex cases where we provide our clients with expert advice and assistance.

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, Waltham Forest Council’s HMO standards were published in 2015 and you can view a copy on the council’s website. Once you click on the link, scroll down to ‘HMO property standards’. The webpage also contains other useful guidance.

The Waltham Forest HMO standards relate to properties licensed under the mandatory HMO or additional licensing scheme and cover a range of issues such as kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities, fire precautions, heating, lighting and ventilation.

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 apply throughout England to HMOs licensed under a mandatory HMO or additional licensing scheme.

In March 2015, Waltham Forest Council had licensed 166 HMOs under the mandatory HMO licensing scheme. When we checked again in January 2016, the public register listed 168, in May 2017 the figure had dropped slightly to 159 but by May 2019 it had increased to 216.

The selective licensing scheme came into force on 1 April 2015. By January 2016, the council reported that they had approved 15,000 licences. By May 2016, 19,000 licence applications had been received and by July 2017, they had received over 23,000 applications with over 21,000 licences approved.

By May 2019, the council told us that 26,204 selective licences had been approved.

The council keeps a public register of all licensed properties that can be viewed on the council's website. Once you click on the link, scroll down to ‘Public register of licensed properties’.

In May 2019, Waltham Forest Council told us they think there were about 6,000 properties covered by the mandatory HMO licensing scheme and a further 26,886 properties covered by selective licensing.

Whilst it seems most of these properties have applied for a selective licence, many landlords of smaller HMOs will need to apply for an additional licence after the new scheme started on 1 April 2020.

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.

Waltham Forest Council took 14 housing prosecutions over the five years from April 2011 to March 2016, an average three housing prosecutions a year. In 2016/17, there was a dramatic increase in enforcement action with 58 successful housing prosecutions. 

The council did not obtain any Rent Repayment Orders from the landlords of unlicensed HMOs over the five years from April 2011 to March 2016.

For all the latest information, you can search for housing prosecutions on the Mayor of London’s ‘Rogue landlord and agent checker’, available here.

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

Whilst we don’t have any figures for the NLA or RLA schemes, 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 615 accredited landlords in Waltham Forest, which was in the top third of all London boroughs.

By January 2018, there were 757 accredited landlords, by January 2019 there were 780 accredited landlords and by January 2020 there were 915 accredited landlords, which is above 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! 

The council carried out a public consultation on proposals for a borough wide additional licensing scheme for all Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), plus a selective licensing scheme covering all other private rented properties in the majority of the borough (except Hatch Lane and Endlebury). The consultation took place over 12 weeks from Monday 4 February to Monday 29 April 2019.

On 11 July 2019, the council’s Cabinet meeting approved plans for a borough wide additional licensing scheme and a selective licensing scheme covering most of the borough (read here – agent item 5).

The additional licensing scheme started on 1 April 2020 and having obtained government approval, a replacement selective licensing scheme started on 1 May 2020.

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 smaller HMOs, the rules are more complicated. HMOs occupied by up to six people fall into planning use class C4 whereas single-family properties fall into planning use class C3.

On 16 September 2013, Waltham Forest Council made an Article 4 Direction that removes the permitted development rights to change a property from a single-family house (use class C3) to an HMO occupied by up to six people (use class C4) without planning permission.

The Article 4 Direction applies borough-wide and came into force on 16 September 2014. So from that date, even letting your property to three people who are not all related could require planning permission.

You can download a copy of the Article 4 Direction confirmation notice from the ‘More Information’ box on the right of this page.

We have also published some more general advice about HMO Article 4 Directions, available here. 

To find out more information from Waltham Forest Council, you can visit the planning page on the council’s website.

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. 

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: 

Private Sector Housing and Licensing
Waltham Forest Council
Magistrates Building
1 Farnan Avenue
Walthamstow
London
E17 4NX

Email: propertylicensing@walthamforest.gov.uk
Tel:      020 8496 4949
Website: www.walthamforest.gov.uk