Havering Buy-to-Let and Accidental Landlord Licence Requirements

You bought a flat in Romford as an investment, or you inherited a house in Rainham and started renting it out rather than selling. Either way, you have one property, you are managing it yourself, and you have just heard that Havering requires landlord licences. The question is whether it applies to you — and if it does, what exactly you need to do.

Havering's Licensing Schemes Apply to Every Private Landlord

There is no exemption for small landlords, first-time landlords, or landlords with a single property. Havering operates three licensing schemes under the Housing Act 2004, and the obligation to hold a licence depends on what the property is, where it sits, and who lives in it — not how many properties you own.

Selective licensing (Scheme 2) covers single-household lets and lets to one or two unrelated occupants in seven designated wards: Beam Park, Harold Wood, Rainham and Wennington, Rush Green and Crowlands, Squirrels Heath, St Albans, and St Edwards. If you rent a house or flat to one person, a couple, a family, or up to two unrelated occupants in one of these wards, you need a selective licence. Total standard fee: £950 (Part A £570, Part B £380).

Additional HMO licensing (Scheme 3) applies borough-wide. If your property houses 3 or 4 tenants from 2 or more households who share a kitchen or bathroom, you need an additional HMO licence regardless of ward. Total standard fee: £1,400.

Mandatory HMO licensing also applies borough-wide. Properties with 5 or more occupants from 2 or more households sharing facilities need this licence. Fees start at £1,329 and scale with the number of lettings.

If your buy-to-let is a single-family let in one of the 13 non-selective wards, no property licence is currently required. But if your tenant arrangements change — a lodger moves in, a couple splits into separate households — the licensing obligation can change too.

The Accidental Landlord Trap

Accidental landlords — people who end up renting out a property they inherited, could not sell, or moved away from — face the same licensing rules as professional portfolio landlords. The difference is that accidental landlords are far more likely to be unaware the rules exist.

Havering's enforcement policy does include a downward matrix adjustment of 20% on civil penalties for landlords who own no more than two properties, have no prior enforcement history, and cooperate fully with the investigation. The statutory maximum is £30,000 for offences committed before 1 May 2026 and £40,000 for offences committed on or after that date. A 20% reduction on a £15,000 civil penalty is still £12,000.

Havering asks the public to report rented properties that appear to require a licence but are missing from the register; the council has said suspected unlicensed HMOs are identified largely through complaints. "I didn't know" is not a defence under the Housing Act 2004.

What a Single-Property Landlord Needs to Do

The application process is the same regardless of portfolio size:

1. Check your ward. Use the council's address lookup tool or the ward map to confirm whether your property falls in a selective licensing area.
2. Determine the licence type. A single tenant, couple, family, or up to two unrelated occupants in a selective ward needs a selective licence. Shared tenants need an additional or mandatory HMO licence depending on numbers.
3. Gather documents. Gas safety certificate (annual), EICR (5-year, must show Satisfactory), EPC (minimum grade E), dimensioned floor plans with room measurements in square metres, and for HMOs a fire risk assessment. Full list: documents required.
4. Register on the portal. Havering's property licensing portal is separate from the standard "My Havering" council account.
5. Pay Part A. The application is "duly made" once documents, declarations and Part A fee are submitted. A duly-made application provides a statutory defence to an unlicensed-operation offence while the council determines it.
6. Pay Part B when the council issues the draft licence.

The accreditation discount (£100 off Part B) is worth taking — joining the NRLA or London Landlord Accreditation Scheme costs less than the discount saves, and the accreditation itself covers practical training that self-managing landlords with one property particularly benefit from. An EPC rating of C or higher saves another £75 on Part B.

Planning Permission — the Hidden Catch for Buy-to-Let HMOs

If your buy-to-let has evolved from a single-family let into a small HMO — three or four sharers, which is common with buy-to-let flats near Romford station — you may also need planning permission. Havering removed permitted development rights for converting non-detached properties (flats, terraced houses, semi-detached houses) from C3 dwellinghouse to C4 small HMO use under an Article 4 Direction effective since July 2016. A separate direction also covers all property types in the historic Brooklands, Romford Town, Heaton and Gooshays wards. A borough-wide Article 4 covering detached houses was under consultation in 2026.

Without the required planning permission or an approved Certificate of Lawful Use (COLU), the council will issue only a one-year licence instead of the standard five years. That gives you 12 months to obtain planning consent or a COLU, or revert the property to a single-household let.

Our Havering landlord licensing guide walks through every step from ward check to licence grant — written for landlords with one property who need to get it right the first time.

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