Buying an HMO in London? Check the Licence Before You Complete

An HMO can be an excellent investment — but only if the licensing position is exactly what you think it is. We regularly speak to buyers who completed on a property assuming it was a compliant, licensed HMO, only to discover after the fact that it wasn't, or that it was licensed for a lower occupancy than they'd been told. Here's what to check before you exchange contracts, not after.

Verify the licence independently

Don't rely solely on what the seller, their agent, or the property listing states about the licensing position. Every council operating HMO licensing maintains a public HMO register, a statutory requirement under the Housing Act 2004, showing the address, licence type, licence holder's name, maximum number of occupants and households permitted, and the licence expiry date. Check it yourself to confirm a licence genuinely exists, is current, and matches the property's actual occupancy — a licence for 5 occupants doesn't cover a property being marketed to you as suitable for 7.

Remember the licence won't transfer to you

Even if everything checks out and the current licence is completely valid, it will not transfer to you as the new owner. You will need to submit your own application after completion, assessed against the fit and proper person test and current mandatory conditions from scratch. Factor this into your timeline and budget, including the possibility of a gap between completion and your licence being granted, during which the property legally should not be operated as an HMO under the previous owner's now-void licence.

Check the licence conditions, not just its existence

A licence being valid doesn't tell you whether the property currently meets every condition attached to it. Ask for evidence of current gas and electrical safety certificates — the electrical report needs to be no more than five years old and satisfactory, not merely present — confirm room sizes meet the mandatory minimums of 6.51 square metres for one person, 10.22 square metres for two, and that no room below 4.64 square metres is being used for sleeping accommodation. Also check whether any enforcement notices, licence variations, or condition breaches have been recorded against the property historically, since these can indicate a property that's been running close to the line rather than comfortably compliant.

Confirm the planning position too

As we cover in a separate article, an HMO licence and planning permission are different things entirely — one covers management and safety standards, the other covers whether the property is lawfully allowed to be used as an HMO at all. Particularly in boroughs with an Article 4 Direction removing permitted development rights, confirm the property's HMO use was properly established under planning law. A valid licence tells you nothing about this, because the council department that grants licences doesn't automatically cross-check planning history when assessing a licence application.

Check for additional or selective licensing overlap

Some boroughs require both an HMO licence and, separately, if the property falls within a designated zone, a selective licence covering any privately rented property in that area regardless of whether it's an HMO. Confirm which schemes apply to the specific address, not just the borough generally, since scheme boundaries are often set at postcode or even street level, and a property two streets over from yours may sit in a different designated area entirely.

What a seller's paperwork often doesn't tell you

Sellers will often produce the licence itself readily, since it's the most obvious document to hand over, but the underlying compliance evidence — up-to-date certificates, room measurements, correspondence with the council about conditions — is less consistently kept or offered. A licence document on its own is a starting point for your due diligence, not the end of it, and gaps in the supporting paperwork are worth raising with the seller's solicitor before exchange rather than after you own the property and the obligations are yours alone.

Get an independent check before you commit

If you're in the process of buying an HMO anywhere in London, get in touch before you exchange. We'll check the property's current licensing position against the council's register, flag anything that doesn't add up, and — once you own it — handle your own licence application from day one, whether that's a Mandatory HMO Licence at £500+VAT or an Additional HMO Licence at £300+VAT.