Hounslow Additional HMO Licensing: The Borough-Wide Scheme Explained

Hounslow's additional HMO licensing scheme is now in its fourth iteration, and this time it runs for five years with no ward exemptions. If you let a shared property to three or four people from different households anywhere in the borough, you need to be licensed under it.

What the Scheme Covers

The London Borough of Hounslow Additional Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation Scheme (4) 2025 was designated on 11 September 2025 following Cabinet approval on 2 September 2025. It came into force on 11 December 2025 and runs through 10 December 2030.

The scheme applies borough-wide — every electoral ward from Chiswick Gunnerbury to Feltham North to Hounslow Heath. There are no street-level, postcode-level or partial-ward exemptions.

It targets properties that fall below the national mandatory HMO threshold: homes occupied by three or four persons forming two or more separate households who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet. These are typically small shared houses or flats let on a room-by-room basis to professional sharers or students.

Who Needs to Apply

You need an additional HMO licence if your property meets all of these conditions:

• Three or four people live there (every individual counts, including children)
• They form two or more separate households (unrelated sharers each count as a separate household)
• They share at least one basic amenity — kitchen, bathroom or toilet

Common examples that trigger the scheme: three unrelated professionals sharing a flat, a couple and one other tenant in a house-share, or two couples sharing a two-bed flat.

Properties with five or more occupants from two or more households fall under mandatory HMO licensing instead, not the additional scheme. The national mandatory scheme has no expiry date, although each individual licence has its own term.

Section 257 Converted Buildings

The scheme also covers section 257 converted blocks of flats — buildings split into self-contained flats where the conversion did not meet the Building Regulations in force at the time and less than two-thirds of the flats are owner-occupied. Hounslow applies a specific local restriction: a section 257 building needs an additional licence only if the whole building and all flats within it are under single ownership or effective single control.

Key Dates Landlords Should Track

There was no grace period after 11 December 2025. Landlords who had not applied by that date for properties already occupied by three or four sharers were immediately in breach of section 72 of the Housing Act 2004.

What Happened to the Previous Scheme

This is Hounslow's fourth additional licensing designation. Each scheme runs for a maximum of five years under section 60 of the Housing Act 2004. When a scheme expires, the council must consult and re-designate if it wants to continue licensing. Scheme dates and an individual licence's expiry date are separate, so check the expiry date printed on your licence. If your previous licence expired before 11 December 2025, you needed a new application under the new designation.

How the 2024 General Approval Changed Things

Until December 2024, councils needed Secretary of State approval for discretionary licensing covering more than 20% of their area. The Housing Act 2004: Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation and Selective Licensing of Other Residential Accommodation (England) General Approval 2024, which came into force on 23 December 2024, removed that requirement entirely. Councils can now designate schemes of any size on their own authority, provided they meet statutory criteria and run a minimum 10-week public consultation. This change makes it far more likely that Hounslow — and other London boroughs — will continue renewing their additional licensing schemes.

What You Need to Do

If your property falls within scope, the application goes through Hounslow Council's online licensing portal. The base fee is £1,608 (or £1,509 with a landlord accreditation discount) plus £25 per household. You will need safety certificates, scaled floor plans and fit-and-proper declarations before you start.

The full application process, document checklist and fee calculations are covered in our Hounslow Landlord Licensing Guide, which walks through the portal step by step.

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