Croydon Selective Licensing 2026: Start Date, Rules and What Landlords Need to Know

What the Scheme Is

Croydon's selective licensing scheme — officially the Croydon Private Rented Property Licensing scheme 2026 (CPRPL 2026) — requires landlords of non-HMO private rented homes in 14 designated wards to hold a property licence. It covers properties let to a single household, a single tenant, or two unrelated sharers.

The scheme came into force on 25 September 2026 and runs for five years until 24 September 2031.

If your property is a shared house with three or more tenants forming multiple households, it falls under HMO licensing instead — either additional or mandatory, depending on occupancy numbers.

Key Dates

Croydon Council's Cabinet approved both the selective and additional HMO licensing designations on 25 March 2026, following a 12-week public consultation that ran from 21 October 2025 to 12 January 2026. The application portal opened ahead of the 25 September start date, and landlords with properties in designated wards should already have applied or be in the process.

The previous borough-wide selective scheme (CPRPL 2015) expired in 2020 and was not immediately renewed. Any online source claiming a November 2023 or late 2024 start date is referencing outdated or inaccurate information.

Who Needs a Selective Licence

You need a selective licence if all three conditions are met:

1. Your property is privately rented (not social housing, not owner-occupied)
2. It is occupied by a single family, single tenant, or two unrelated sharers
3. The property sits within one of the 14 designated wards

Properties occupied by three or more people from different households are HMOs and need an HMO licence instead. An HMO licence exempts the property from selective licensing — you never need both.

The 14 Designated Wards

Selective licensing applies in: Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Bensham Manor, Broad Green, Fairfield, Norbury and Pollards Hill, Norbury Park, Selhurst, South Croydon, South Norwood, Thornton Heath, Waddon, West Thornton, and Woodside.

These 14 wards cover 32,043 private rented dwellings — roughly 72.5% of Croydon's non-HMO private rented stock. Properties in the remaining 14 wards (including Crystal Palace, Coulsdon Town, Purley, and Sanderstead) do not need a selective licence.

Ward boundaries do not always follow postcode lines, so check your exact address against the council's official ward map rather than relying on a postcode lookup alone.

What It Costs

A five-year selective licence is £800, split into two stages: £480 (Part A) paid when you submit the application and £320 (Part B) paid once the application has been assessed and the decision is made to grant the licence. The Part A fee is non-refundable.

If the council issues a reduced one-year licence term — typically where there are compliance concerns — the fee is £544.

Discounts are available for qualifying accreditation or memberships and for properties with an EPC rating of Band B or above. The £100 multi-dwelling discount applies only to second and later properties in common ownership and management control, contiguous in the same block or building, with all applications made at the same time.

Two Sharers: A Common Question

A property let to two unrelated people counts as two separate households under the Housing Act 2004, but it does not meet the HMO threshold (which starts at three occupiers from two or more households). So two-sharer properties in the 14 designated wards fall squarely under selective licensing, not HMO licensing.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Letting a property without the required selective licence is a criminal offence under Section 95 of the Housing Act 2004. Croydon Council can impose civil penalties of up to £40,000 per offence as an alternative to prosecution. The council's enforcement policy sets a starting point of £12,000 for operating an unlicensed selective property.

Tenants can also apply for a rent repayment order — recoverable for up to 24 months of gross rent for offences committed on or after 1 May 2026.

Getting Started

Our Croydon Landlord Licensing Guide covers the full selective licensing application process: ward verification, document requirements, the two-stage fee structure, discount stacking, and ongoing licence conditions through to the 2031 expiry.

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