HMO SCHEMES

Mandatory HMO Licensing Schemes

If you own a rented property anywhere in England that has 5 or more occupants made up of 2 or more households then you are required to licence your property as a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) under the Mandatory HMO Licensing Scheme.

Each local authority is responsible for running the mandatory scheme within their area and they have their own criteria as to how the scheme is administered.

The mandatory scheme in Southampton allows an independent HMO surveyor to inspect the property and to provide a certificate of compliance to confirm the property meets the requirements of fire safety, health and safety, room sizes and amenity standards. To be able to use an independent surveyor, you must submit your HMO application to the local authority within 3 months of the property becoming licensable (being occupied by 5 or more persons) or within 3 months of a previous licence expiring. To that end, you will need to arrange an inspection in plenty of time to allow any remedial work to be carried out to bring the property up to the required standard to allow a certificate of compliance to be issued and submitted with your HMO licence application.

Further details and the fees payable to the local authority can be found at the following link:
HMO licence fees (southampton.gov.uk)

In Portsmouth, the process is slightly different as you must submit an up to date fire risk assessment as part of your application, this is then used to determine whether the property presents a high or low risk of significant injury from fire. You would be expected to carry out the recommendations of the fire risk assessment within the specified timeframe to reduce or mitigate any risk from fire. The local authority will carry out an inspection of the property at some stage during the licensing period to confirm the recommendations of the fire risk assessment have been actioned. The inspector will, at this time, also check to ensure the the property meets health and safety, room size and amenity standards.

Further details and the fees payable to the local authority can be found at the following link:

HMO mandatory licensing - Portsmouth City Council

ADDITIONAL HMO LICENSING SCHEMES

If you own a rented property anywhere in England that has 3 or 4 occupants made up of 2 or more households then you may be required to licence your property as a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO) under an Additional HMO Licensing Scheme. A local authority may elect to implement an Additional Licensing Scheme, to do so they must provide sufficient evidence to justify setting such a scheme up, it is usually implemented to raise the standards of poorly managed or maintained housing stock being used as an HMO. An Additional Licensing Scheme is time limited and runs for 5 years from the date of implementation.

An Additional HMO Licensing Scheme had been in place in Southampton since 2013, however this scheme expired at the end of September 2023. There is currently no requirement for HMO properties with 3 or 4 tenants to be licensed.

It is the intention of the HMO Licensing Team at Southampton to implement a new Additional Licensing Scheme and they are in the process of gathering the required evidence as justification for a new 5 year scheme. It is likely that the new scheme will commence sometime in 2025. It is the landlords responsibility to keep themselves updated on any new developments and you should regularly check the HMO website at the following link:

Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (southampton.gov.uk)

An Additional HMO Licensing Scheme has been implemented in Portsmouth, it commenced on 01.12.2023.

Landlords with properties that are rented to 3 or 4 people forming 2 or more households are now required to apply for an Additional HMO Licence within 3 months of the property meeting the criteria. As part of the application, landlords will be required to submit an in date fire risk assessment (see SERVICES tab), failure to submit a fire risk assessment will result in a reduced term licence being issued until such time as a fire risk assessment is submitted. It is therefore advisable to ensure that you arrange an inspection as soon as possible.

Further details and the fees payable to the local authority can be found at the following link:

Applying for an additional HMO licence - Portsmouth City Council