London Borough of Tower Hamlets

There are three property licensing schemes operating in Tower Hamlets. We will help you choose the right licence for your property.

1. Mandatory HMO licence

In Tower Hamlets 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 Tower Hamlets you need an additional licence if your property is let as a House in Multiple Occupation that falls outside the remit of mandatory HMO licensing. It includes properties shared by three or four people who are not all related and share facilities.

The additional licensing scheme started on 1 April 2024, continues for five years and applies borough wide. You can view the public notice in the ‘At a Glance’ box on the top right of this page. 

The council have included ‘section 257 HMOs: certain converted blocks of flats’ in 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 Tower Hamlets you need a selective licence if your property is occupied by a single household or two unrelated sharers in Whitechaple, Weavers, Spitalfields and Banglatown, based on the council ward boundaries that existed pre 22 May 2014.

The council initially excluded any property where the tenancy or licence of the house had been granted by a student accommodation provider accredited by Accreditation Network UK (ANUK). After realising there was no power to make this exemption, the council varied the scheme designation to exclude properties in postcodes E1 1ES, E1 1FA, E1 7HS, E1 8EU, E1 1LP and E1 1DQ. It remains unclear if the legislation allows a licensing scheme to be varied in this way.

The selective licensing scheme started on 1 October 2021 and continues for five years. You can view the public notice in the ‘At a Glance’ box on the top right of this page. 

You can use the postcode checker on the council’s website to check if your property is within the selective licensing area.

Read our free guide to selective licensing to find out more (here).