London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
If you need help understanding the property licensing rules in Barking and Dagenham you have come to the right place! We are experts in housing regulation and have produced this free guide to help you understand the council’s property licensing schemes.
If you find that you need a licence for your rented property our support doesn’t end there. Our Landlord Suppliers Directory (view here) lists companies that offer a licence application handling service. You can also find companies offering a wide range of other goods and services to help you manage your property portfolio and achieve compliance.
Licensing Requirements
There are currently two property licensing schemes operating in Barking & Dagenham and a third scheme starting soon. We will help you choose the right licence for your property:
1. Mandatory HMO licence
In Barking & Dagenham you 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.
The government have excluded 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 more complicated.
Read our free guide to mandatory HMO licensing to find out more (here).
2. Additional licence
In Barking & Dagenham you need an additional licence if the property is let as a House in Multiple Occupation that does not fall within the remit of the mandatory HMO licensing scheme. It includes properties shared by three or four people who are not all related and share facilities.
The additional licensing scheme started on 9 January 2025, continues for five years and applies borough wide. You can view a copy of the public notice in the ‘At a Glance’ box on the top right of this page.
The council have excluded ‘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.
Read our free guide to additional licensing to find out more (here).
3. Selective licence
In Barking & Dagenham you will need a selective licence if your property is occupied by a single household or two unrelated sharers.
The selective licensing scheme starts on 6 April 2025, continues for five years and applies borough wide.
You can view a copy of the public notice in the ‘At a Glance’ box on the top right of this page.
Read our free guide to selective licensing to find out more (here)
It depends on what type of licence you are applying for.
Mandatory HMO licence
In Barking & Dagenham the mandatory HMO licence application fee is £1,500 for a property with up to five habitable rooms. If there are more rooms, the fee is higher.
The council has not listed any fee discounts for accredited landlords, which we think is a shame.
Additional licence
In Barking & Dagenham the additional licence application fee is £1,400.
Discounts of up to £250 are available if the property is awarded a satisfactory rating from a compliance inspection, with the level of discount dependent on whether the landlord is accredited.
Selective licence
In Barking & Dagenham the selective licence application fee for the new scheme starting on 6 April 2025 is £950. It is unclear if any fee discounts are being offered.
The fees we have listed were correct as of February 2025 but could be subject to change in the future. You can view the fees on the council’s website.
Barking & Dagenham Council has an online licence application system which you can access here. The council have said they will start to accept selective licence applications on 17 March 2025.
We offer a licence application handling service in Barking & Dagenham 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.
Barking & Dagenham Council have published HMO guidance that can be viewed 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. They apply to HMOs licensed under the mandatory HMO and additional licensing schemes. They don’t apply to single-family properties licensed under the selective licensing scheme.
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.
Between 1 September 2019 and February 2024, Barking & Dagenham Council said they approved 17,556 selective licences and 345 mandatory HMO licences.
The council keeps a public register of licensed properties that is regularly updated. You can search the register on the council’s website.
In May 2019, Barking and Dagenham Council told us there could be around 500 properties that fall under mandatory HMO licensing.
In July 2024, Barking and Dagenham Council said they estimate 320 properties will require licensing under the new additional licensing scheme.
If you have failed to apply for the correct licence, it is important you act now to minimise the risk of enforcement action.
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 551 accredited landlords in Barking and Dagenham, which was just above average when compared to all the London boroughs.
January 2018: 697 accredited landlords
January 2019: 874 accredited landlords
January 2020: 952 accredited landlords
January 2021: 1,006 accredited landlords
January 2022: 1,143 accredited landlords
January 2023: 1,224 accredited landlords
By January 2024 there were 1,667 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!
Barking & Dagenham Council consulted on plans to renew their borough wide selective licensing scheme from 16 February to 26 April 2024 and you can find more information on the council’s website.
On 23 July 2024, the Cabinet Meeting approved plans for a borough wide additional and selective licensing schemes (read here).
The additional licensing scheme came into force on 9 January 2025 and the selective licensing scheme starts on 6 April 2025.Â
Sign up to our free newsletter for all the latest news (here).
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 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 14 May 2011, Barking & Dagenham 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 14 May 2012. 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 from the ‘At a Glance’ box on the right of this page. We also have some more general advice on HMO Article 4 Directions that you can read here.
To find out more 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 Rented Property Licensing Team
Barking and Dagenham Council
Barking Town Hall
1 Clockhouse Avenue
Barking IG11 7LU
Email: PRPL@lbbd.gov.uk
Tel: 020 8724 8898
Website: www.lbbd.gov.uk
Latest News
Consultations
There are currently no licensing consultations we are aware of in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham