You do not need a licence if you rent your property to a single family as Kingston 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. Kingston Council operate both an additional licensing scheme and the mandatory HMO licensing scheme that applies throughout England.
The additional licensing scheme came into force on 21 December 2012 and applied borough wide. The scheme lasted for five years and ended on 20 December 2017. A replacement additional licensing scheme started on 1 March 2018 and lasts for another five years.
To help you decide if you need a licence, we have outlined the two 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
You will need an additional licence if your property is let as a House in Multiple Occupation that does not fall within the remit of the mandatory HMO licensing scheme but it meets the following criteria:
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It is one or two storeys high and occupied by five or more people; or
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It is three or more storeys high and occupied by three or four people
We believe Kingston Council have excluded section 257 HMOs from their licensing scheme although their website is not that clear so you may wish to contact them directly to check.