Havering Landlord Licensing: All Three Schemes Explained for 2026–2031

Three Licensing Schemes Running at Once

Since 18 March 2026, the London Borough of Havering has operated three concurrent property licensing schemes under the Housing Act 2004. A privately rented home may need a licence under one of them, depending on its occupants and address, and getting the classification wrong means losing a non-refundable application fee.

The three schemes form a strict hierarchy:

Mandatory HMO licensing applies borough-wide across all 20 wards. Any property occupied by five or more people forming two or more separate households who share a kitchen, bathroom, or toilet needs this licence. The total fee starts at £1,329 for up to five lettings and scales upward for larger properties.

Additional HMO licensing (Scheme 3) also covers the entire borough. It catches smaller shared properties — three or four people from two or more households sharing facilities — plus qualifying Section 257 converted buildings. The standard fee is £1,400.

Selective licensing (Scheme 2) applies only in seven designated wards: Beam Park, Harold Wood, Rainham and Wennington, Rush Green and Crowlands, Squirrels Heath, St Albans, and St Edwards. It covers standard single-family lets, couples, and properties with one or two unrelated tenants. The standard fee is £950.

How the Hierarchy Works

A property can only hold one licence at a time. Mandatory HMO licensing overrides Additional HMO licensing, which overrides Selective licensing. If your tenant composition changes — a couple moves out and three unrelated sharers move in — the applicable scheme changes, and you need a fresh application under the correct category.

This matters because the Part A application fee (£570 for selective, £840 for additional HMO, £1,063 for mandatory HMO) is non-refundable. Applying under the wrong scheme forfeits that fee entirely.

What Changed From the Previous Schemes

The 2026 designations replaced smaller schemes that ran from 25 January 2021 through 24 January 2026. The old selective scheme covered just two wards (Brooklands and Romford Town under pre-2022 boundaries). The old additional licensing scheme covered six wards. The expansion is significant — selective licensing now reaches seven wards, and additional HMO licensing covers the entire borough.

Crucially, ward boundaries were redrawn in May 2022. Any licensing confirmation from before that date references superseded ward definitions. A property that sat outside a licensing area under the old boundaries may now fall within one.

Transition Rules

An existing licence from the old scheme remains valid until its individual expiry date — you don't need to surrender it early. But once it expires, or if there's a material change in ownership, management, or occupancy, you must apply under the 2026–2031 framework. There's no statutory grace period for unlicensed operation between scheme transitions.

What Happens Without a Licence

Since 1 May 2026, operating without a required licence carries civil penalties of up to £40,000 per offence under the Housing Act 2004 as amended. Tenants or the council can apply for a Rent Repayment Order to recover up to 24 months of rent. In a 2025 prosecution at Snaresbrook Crown Court, a Havering landlord was fined £5,000 with £14,294 in costs and hit with a £33,698 Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation order.

Before 1 May 2026, licensing rules could bar a Section 21 notice for a property required to be licensed but unlicensed. Section 21 is no longer available for new possession claims; landlords must use current Section 8 grounds, while licensing breaches can still lead to separate penalties and rent repayment orders.

Getting Your Application Right

The Landlord Licensing in Havering guide walks through the full process step by step — from working out which scheme applies to your property, through the document preparation and portal submission, to managing conditions over the five-year licence term. It covers the fee structure, available discounts, and the common mistakes that lead to rejected applications and forfeited fees.

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