News
Selective licensing scheme to be scaled back in Hammersmith and Fulham
Hammersmith & Fulham Council currently operate a borough wide additional licensing scheme plus a selective licensing scheme that extends licensing to all private rented homes in 128 streets. Both schemes end on 4 June 2022.
From 10 May to 10 August 2021, the council consulted on plans for new licensing schemes (read here). A report was then presented to the council’s Cabinet meeting on 6 December 2021.
New additional licensing scheme
Cabinet members approved plans for a new borough wide additional licensing scheme, with similar criteria to the scheme that has operated from 2017 to 2022. It will include all shared accommodation and bedsit-HMOs occupied by three or more people comprising two or more households.
Having listened to feedback, the council have stepped back from licensing all section 257 HMOs. When the new scheme comes into force, licensing of section 257 HMOs will be restricted to certain buildings converted into flats where:
- None of the flats are owner-occupied, and
- The building is not owned or managed by two or more of the leasehold owners of individual flats within it, either acting individually or through a management company of which they are directors or officers, and
- The building is not in a street subject to selective licensing.
This follows the recent decision by Westminster City Council to remove all section 257 HMOs from the remit of their additional licensing scheme (read here).
New selective licensing scheme
The new selective licensing scheme which was also approved by Cabinet members will look significantly different to the previous scheme. Whereas the current selective licensing scheme includes all private rented properties in 128 streets, the new scheme has been scaled back to include just 24 streets. When the new scheme comes into force, the only streets subject to selective licensing will be:
- Askew Road
- Baron’s Court Road
- Bloemfontein Road
- Blythe Road
- Coningham Road
- Crookham Road
- Dalling Road
- Dawes Road
- Fulham Road
- Goldhawk Road
- Greyhound Road
- King Street
- Lime Grove
- New King’s Road
- North End Road
- Richmond Way
- Shepherd’s Bush Road
- Sinclair Road
- Scrubs Lane
- Talgarth Road
- Uxbridge Road
- Wandsworth Bridge Road
- Woodstock Grove
- Wood Lane
New schemes start June 2022
The new additional and selective licensing schemes will come into force on 5 June 2022 to coincide with when the current schemes end.
Our free guide with more information about property licensing and HMO planning rules in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham is available here.
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