Greenwich HMO Room Size Requirements: Minimum Bedroom and Kitchen Standards

Statutory Minimum Bedroom Sizes

All licensed HMOs in Greenwich must meet the national minimum room sizes set by the Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Mandatory Conditions of Licences) (England) Regulations 2018. These thresholds determine which sleeping uses the council may authorise for each room; a room below the relevant minimum cannot be used for that occupancy.

These are usable floor areas. Any part of the room where the ceiling height is less than 1.5 metres does not count toward the minimum. In practice, this matters in attic conversions and rooms under sloping roofs where the wall meets the eaves — that unusable strip can push a room below threshold even though the total floor area looks adequate on paper.

How to Measure

Measure each bedroom at floor level from wall to wall, in metres. Multiply length by width for a rectangular room. For irregular shapes, break the room into rectangles and add the areas.

Then check ceiling heights. Run a tape measure from floor to ceiling at regular intervals across the room. Mark any zone where the ceiling drops below 1.5 metres. Subtract that zone's floor area from the total.

A room that measures 3.0 m × 2.5 m = 7.50 m² looks compliant for a single occupant. But if 1.20 m² of that area sits under an eave below 1.5 m, the usable area is 6.30 m² — below the 6.51 m² minimum and not permitted for a single adult.

Floor Plans for the Application

The council requires scaled floor plans uploaded to the Metastreet portal. Each plan must show:

• Room dimensions in square metres
• Ceiling heights (especially in converted loft rooms)
• Locations of doors, windows and fire escape routes
• Fixed amenities: sinks, cookers, WCs, showers, baths

Plans do not have to be architect-quality, but they must be accurate and to scale. Graph paper with measured dimensions is acceptable. A smartphone sketch without numbers is not.

Shared Kitchen Standards

Greenwich applies local amenity standards to shared kitchens in licensed HMOs. The minimum floor area and equipment scale with the number of residents sharing:

For up to six residents, the kitchen must be at least 10.5 m² and equipped with adequate cookers, sinks, worktops and electrical sockets. Larger properties need additional facilities proportionally — typically a second oven or hob ring set, additional fridge-freezer capacity and extra worktop length.

Kitchen inspections check that cookers are not positioned against escape routes and that ventilation (mechanical extract or openable window) is adequate for the hob output.

Occupancy Limits and Overcrowding

The licence specifies the maximum number of occupants for the property and for each bedroom individually. Exceeding these numbers is a breach of licence conditions — an offence carrying a civil penalty of up to £40,000.

The maximum is set during the application based on the room measurements and amenity provision you declare. If you later want to increase occupancy (for example, converting a single room into a double), you must submit a formal variation request through the portal before letting the room to additional occupants.

Child-Specific Rules in Greenwich

Greenwich imposes local conditions on children in HMOs:

• No bedroom in an HMO may house a child under 18 unless a parent or legal guardian also occupies a bedroom in the same property.
• Children's bedrooms must have thumb-turn lockable doors (no key locks that could trap a child).
• Windows above ground floor with sill heights below 1,100 mm must have safety restrictors limiting the opening to 100 mm, with an adult-override mechanism.

What Inspections Look For

Greenwich inspects 100% of mandatory HMO licensed properties at least once during the five-year licence term. Additional HMO and selective licensed properties are inspected on a risk-based sample.

Inspectors measure rooms, check alarm installations, verify escape routes and compare the property against the floor plans and conditions on the licence. Discrepancies between declared dimensions and actual measurements can trigger enforcement action.

For a full breakdown of room measurement methods, floor plan templates and inspection preparation, see our Greenwich landlord licensing guide.

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