Harrow Landlord Licence Renewal: When to Apply and What Changes

Every property licence in Harrow runs for a maximum of five years. When it expires, you need a new one — there's no automatic continuation. Miss the renewal window and you're operating without a licence, which is a criminal offence carrying civil penalties up to £40,000 and exposure to Rent Repayment Orders.

The council doesn't chase you hard, either. You get automated email reminders 60 to 90 days before expiry, and that's largely it.

The Five-Year Term

The 2026 selective designations end on these dates:

• Edgware and Roxeth: 1 May 2031
• Greenhill and Marlborough: 5 July 2031
• Wealdstone North and South: 31 August 2031

HMO licences can run for up to five years from the individual grant date, regardless of scheme timing. The council may issue a shorter term.

The council can issue shorter licence terms — one or two years — where a property has a compliance history, unresolved hazards, or where the applicant has a poor track record. If you receive a shorter licence, the renewal cycle comes around much faster.

Renewal vs Fresh Application

If you submit a renewal application before your current licence expires, the council processes it as a renewal. That can mean lower fees — particularly for additional HMO licences, where proposed fees were £1,285 for a renewal and £1,818 for a new application. These are estimates for the proposed scheme; no replacement additional HMO designation is currently in force.

If you submit after the expiry date, the council treats it as a fresh new application with the higher fee scale. There's no grace period. The expiry date on your licence is the hard deadline.

The Renewal Process

Log into your MyHarrow account, select the linked property licence, and start the renewal workflow. You'll need to:

• Verify your existing floor plans are still accurate
• Upload current safety certificates — a new CP12 and EICR if the existing ones have expired or are about to
• Complete the fit-and-proper-person declaration again
• Pay the Part A processing fee

The council may request a fresh inspection, particularly for HMO renewals.

Licence vs Scheme Expiry

An important distinction: your individual property licence and the overarching scheme designation can expire on different dates. If the scheme that granted your licence expires, your individual licence remains valid until its own expiry date. You don't lose the licence just because the designation period ends.

This happened during the Edgware transition in April–May 2026. The old selective scheme expired on 27 April 2026 and the new one started on 2 May 2026. Licences issued under the old scheme continued to be valid through the gap.

Non-Transferability

Licences are attached to a specific named person and a specific property. If the property is sold, the licence lapses immediately. The new owner cannot inherit it — they must submit their own fresh application. Similarly, if the licence holder dies, the licence lapses automatically with a three-month statutory grace period for personal representatives to arrange a new application or sell the property.

For the full renewal timeline, a printable tracking template, and the complete licence lifecycle process, see our Harrow landlord licensing guide.

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