Barnet HMO Licence Application Documents: The Complete Checklist
Barnet Council may reject HMO licence applications if required elements are missing or incomplete. Each certificate has its own validity window. The council retains £365 of Fee 1 before inspection when the property was licensable at application and processing work was completed; this is not an automatic charge for every rejection. Here is the complete list.
Mandatory Documents for Portal Upload
| Document | Standard | Must be dated within |
|---|---|---|
| Gas Safety Certificate | Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 | 12 months |
| EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report) | Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020 | 5 years, marked "Satisfactory" |
| EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) | Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations | 10-year validity, minimum E rating or a valid registered MEES exemption |
| Fire Alarm Test Certificate | BS 5839 Part 6 | 12 months |
| Emergency Lighting Certificate | BS 5266 (if fitted or required) | 12 months |
| PAT Certificate | Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 | 12 months |
| Scaled floor plan | Barnet local HMO standard | Current, with exact room measurements |
| Fit and Proper Person declaration | Section 66, Housing Act 2004 | If required where multiple people are bound by the licence; signed within 3 months of submission |
If you hold accreditation with LLAS, NRLA, ARLA Propertymark, NALS, RICS or UKALA, upload your accreditation certificate at the same time to claim the 10% Stage 1 fee discount. The discount cannot be applied after submission.
The Floor Plan Catches Most People
The floor plan is not optional decoration — it is the document the Environmental Health Officer uses during the physical inspection. It must be to scale, show every room's use (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, communal area), and include the usable floor area in square metres.
Ceiling height matters: any part of a room where the ceiling is below 1.5 metres cannot count toward the minimum floor area. Attic conversions and rooms under sloping roofs in Victorian terraces across Barnet regularly lose usable area to this rule.
For a standard single bedroom, the statutory minimum is 6.51 m² (Barnet's preferred minimum is 8.5 m²). A double bedroom needs 10.22 m² as a statutory minimum (Barnet prefers 11.0 m²). If your floor plan shows a room below these thresholds, the council may reduce the permitted occupancy on the licence.
The EICR Validity Trap
An EICR is valid for five years, but only if the overall assessment is "Satisfactory." A report marked "Unsatisfactory" — typically because of one or more C1 or C2 observations — is not a valid EICR for licensing purposes. You need the remedial work done and a follow-up report issued before the council will accept it.
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Notice of Intention to Apply
Before submitting, you must serve a formal Notice of Intention to Apply for an HMO Licence on all interested parties: freeholders, head-lessees, mortgage lenders, joint owners and managing agents. The portal requires you to tick a declaration confirming you have served this notice. Skipping it does not just risk rejection — it is a legal requirement under Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 2004.
Get the Timing Right
Book your Gas Safety and Fire Alarm inspections early — both need to be dated within 12 months of submission, and engineer availability in London can push bookings out by several weeks. The Barnet Landlord Licensing Guide includes a document audit worksheet that tracks validity dates and flags certificates approaching expiry before you start the portal submission.
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