You do not need a licence if you rent your property to a single family as Haringey Council do not operate a selective licensing scheme. However, if you rent out a flat in a converted building, you should check the additional licensing scheme below as some buildings containing flats do need to be licensed.
If you rent out your property as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) the answer is more complicated. Haringey Council operate an additional licensing scheme plus the mandatory HMO licensing scheme that applies throughout England.
To help you decide if you need a licence we’ve outlined the different 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 - the 2019 scheme
The newest additional HMO licensing scheme came into force on 27 May 2019 and will end on 26 May 2024.
It applies to all HMOs throughout the borough and you can view a copy of the public notice in the ‘More Information’ box on the top right of this page.
The council have included all ‘section 257 HMOs: certain converted blocks of flats’ in the scheme. These are properties that:
a) have been converted into self-contained flats; and
b) less than two thirds of the flats are owner occupied; and
c) the conversion did not comply with the relevant Building Regulations in force at that time and still does not comply.
Under the previous scheme, the council had applied restrictions to the licensing of section 257 HMOs, but those restrictions have now been lifted and so all 257 HMOs will need to be licensed under this scheme.
3. Additional licensing (Tottenham Area)
This additional licensing scheme came into force on 1 May 2014 and ended on 30 April 2019. All HMOs that were previously licensed under this scheme will need to be licensed under the new additional licensing scheme when the licences come up for renewal.
The scheme applied to all HMOs in the wards of Bruce Grove, Northumberland Park, Seven Sisters, Tottenham Hale and Tottenham Green.
The council included ‘section 257 HMOs: certain converted blocks of flats’ in the scheme. The council decided all section 257 HMOs needed a licence if they were above a non-residential premises (i.e. an office, shop, etc.). But a section 257 HMO not above commercial premises only needed licensing if the total number of dwellings exceeded the number of storeys in the building and where the building and all the flats within it were either in the same ownership or are considered by the by the council to be effectively under the same control.