London Borough of Enfield

You do not need a licence if you rent your property to a single family as Enfield Council do not operate a selective licensing scheme.

If you rent your property as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), the answer is a bit more complicated. Some HMOs need a licence under the mandatory HMO licensing scheme that applies throughout England. There is also an additional licensing scheme that starts on 1 September 2020. 

To help you decide if you need a licence we’ve outlined the two property 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:

• 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 licensing

The additional licensing comes into force on 1 September 2020 and will continue for five years until 31 August 2025, unless the council decide to revoke the scheme or implement a replacement scheme.

It will apply to most HMOs in the London Borough of Enfield, including all properties shared by three or more people who are not all related and share facilities.

Fortunately, the council have decided to exclude ‘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.

This is a complex area of law and you may need further advice.

Enfield Council charge a licence fee of £139.40 per lettable room (was £130 in 2018/19, £120 in 2016/17) within a property. So, the fee is £697 for a shared house with five single person lettings.

When the additional licensing scheme starts, we understand the application fee will increase to a fixed fee of £900 per property, payable in two instalments.

The council do not advertise any discounts for accredited landlords, which we think is a shame.

The fees we have listed were correct as of March 2020 but could be subject to change in the future. You can view the fees in full on the council’s website.

Unfortunately, there is no online application system – it’s a bit old fashioned! Instead, you can download an application form from the council’s website complete it by hand and post it back to them.

In addition to completing the application form, Enfield Council ask you to provide various supporting information such as an electrical certificate, gas safety certificate and fire alarm / emergency lighting test certificates (if any), so make sure you’ve got all your paperwork ready.

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.

Enfield Council updated their HMO standards in February 2020 and you can view a copy 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 apply throughout England to HMOs licensed under a mandatory HMO or additional licensing scheme.

In January 2015, Enfield Council had licensed 54 HMOs under the mandatory HMO licensing scheme. By April 2016, the number had risen to 75, by May 2017 there were 124, by June 2018 there were 154 property and by May 2019, the number had risen to 213.

The Council keeps a public register of licensed HMOs that is regularly updated and can be viewed online. Select ‘HMO Licence (Mandatory)’ from the drop down menu and search all, or select the name or street you are interested in. It’s quite a good system.

We don’t really know. In May 2019, Enfield Council told us they had no information about the number of licensable HMOs operating in the borough. 

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.

Enfield Council told us they took no housing prosecutions over the five years from April 2011 to March 2016, which put them at the bottom of the league table when compared to other London Boroughs. 

Enfield 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 543 accredited landlords in Enfield, which was slightly above average when compared to all London boroughs.

By January 2018, there were 595 accredited landlords, by January 2019 there were 725 accredited landlords and by January 2020 there were 781 accredited landlords, which is slightly 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!

Yes, a new additional licensing scheme starts on 1 September 2020. The council also want to introduce a selective licensing scheme. There is quite a long story so we’ll try and keep it brief.

On 9 April 2014, Enfield Council’s Cabinet made a decision to implement borough wide selective and additional licensing schemes (read here). The schemes were due to come into force on 1 April 2015 and last for five years.

A local landlord, Mr Constantinos Regas, took the council to Judicial Review to try and get the licensing schemes overturned. Enfield Council’s Cabinet met to discuss the matter again on 12 November 2014 (read here). They further ratified their decision to implement a borough wide additional HMO licensing scheme.

The Judicial Review was heard in the High Court on 26 November 2014. On 11 December 2014, His Honour Judge McKenna handed down the judgement (read here). In summary, it was held that the Enfield additional and selective licensing schemes were not lawfully designated and so both licensing schemes were cancelled. The reason was linked to the consultation arrangements. 

Whilst the High Court refused permission for Enfield Council to appeal the decision, the council petitioned the Court of Appeal direct as they wanted to challenge the judgement. On 9 July 2015, the Council announced that they had been granted permission to appeal, but had decided not to do so. As a result, the Judicial Review decision stands and both licensing schemes have been cancelled.

It all then went quiet for a few years until, on 20 June 2019, a decision was made to consult again on two proposed licensing schemes. The decision was then called in by eight councillors unhappy about the decision.

On 15 July 2019, the issue was discussed by the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee (read here) who decided the consultation should proceed.

On 28 August 2019 the council launched a consultation on proposals to introduce additional and selective licensing schemes. The consultation continued until 29 November 2019 and you can find out more information here.

On 22 January 2020, the council’s Cabinet meeting approved proposals for a borough wide additional licensing scheme. They also decided to approach the Secretary of State for permission to implement selective licensing across 13 wards (read here – see agenda item 5).

There is clearly a lot going on at Enfield Council so we will monitor the situation closely. You can sign up to our free newsletter for all the latest news.

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 22 October 2012, Enfield Council made a borough-wide Article 4 Direction that removes the permitted development rights to change a property from use class C3 to use class C4 without planning permission. The HMO Article 4 Direction came into force on 22 October 2013 and you can download a copy from the ‘More Information’ box on the right of this page. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the information on the council's website.

The effect of the Article 4 Direction is to require planning permission to change the use from a single-family property (C3) to an HMO with up to six occupants (class C4). So even letting your property to three people who are not all related could require planning permission.

We have prepared some general advice on HMO Article 4 Directions that you may find useful, available here. 

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: 

HMO Licensing
Private Sector Housing Standards Team

Enfield Council
Civic Centre

Enfield EN1 3XH



Email: PRSH@enfield.gov.uk
Tel:     020 3821 1761
Website: www.enfield.gov.uk