How to Apply for a Havering Landlord Licence Without Using a Letting Agent

You do not need a letting agent to apply for a landlord licence in Havering. The owner can apply directly through the council's online portal. An agent who completes the application on the owner's behalf must submit formal authority-to-act documentation; shared portal logins are prohibited. The council does not require an intermediary, and there is no advantage in the application itself from using one.

What a letting agent charges you for — typically £240 including VAT in Romford, or £300–£500 from a specialist licensing consultant — is filling in the same portal form you can fill in yourself, using your documents. The legal liability stays with you as the property owner regardless of who presses submit.

Here is how to handle the application yourself, where self-submitting landlords actually get stuck, and what to have ready before you open the portal.

The Three Steps Before You Open the Portal

Most problems with self-submitted applications happen before the portal, not inside it. The portal itself is a form — it asks questions, you answer them and upload files. The difficulty is knowing the answers before you start.

Step 1: Work Out Which Licence Your Property Needs

Havering runs three licensing schemes simultaneously, and submitting under the wrong one forfeits the non-refundable Part A fee — £570 for selective, £840 for additional HMO, £1,063 for mandatory HMO. There is no "undo" and no transfer between schemes.

The three schemes:

• Selective licensing: qualifying non-HMO lets in seven designated wards — Beam Park, Harold Wood, Rainham & Wennington, Rush Green & Crowlands, Squirrels Heath, St Albans and St Edwards. This includes lets to one or two unrelated occupants. If the property is outside these wards, selective licensing does not apply.
• Additional HMO licensing: borough-wide (all 20 wards), for properties with three or four occupants forming two or more households who share basic facilities. It also covers Section 257 converted buildings: buildings converted into self-contained flats where the conversion did not comply with the Building Regulations 1991 or later regulations and less than two-thirds of the flats are owner-occupied.
• Mandatory HMO licensing: borough-wide, for properties with five or more occupants forming two or more households who share basic facilities.

The overlap is where landlords get confused. A three-person house share in Rush Green sits inside a selective ward — but because it has three occupants from two or more households who share facilities, it needs an additional HMO licence, not a selective one. Selective licensing also covers qualifying non-HMO lets to one or two unrelated occupants in the designated wards.

The Landlord Licensing in Havering guide includes a decision tree that asks the ward, occupancy and household questions in order and tells you which scheme applies. If you are working through this without a guide, you need to answer three questions in sequence: (1) how many people live in the property, (2) do they form one household or more than one, and (3) which ward is the property in.

Step 2: Collect Your Documents

Havering's portal asks for documents in a specific order, and missing or expired files hold up the application. Get these ready before you log in:

• Gas Safety Certificate — must be less than 12 months old at the time of application
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) — must be within five years
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) — valid and lodged on the EPC register
• Scaled floor plans — showing room dimensions. These do not need to be architect-drawn, but they do need to show room sizes clearly enough for the council to assess occupancy limits
• Fit and Proper Person declaration — details about the proposed licence holder's background (criminal convictions, discrimination findings, housing-related offences)

All documents need to be in a format the portal accepts — typically PDF. Certificates from gas and electrical engineers usually arrive as PDFs; floor plans may need scanning or converting. If you are submitting on paper instead, the council adds a £117.10 surcharge, which makes the online route worth the effort for almost everyone.

Step 3: Know the Fees

The two-stage fee structure trips up landlords who expect to pay once. Havering splits every licence fee into Part A (application processing, paid when you submit) and Part B (licence grant, paid if the application is approved):

Discounts: £100 off Part B with approved accreditation or membership (NRLA, LLAS, Propertymark or Safeagent). £75 off selective and additional Part B with an EPC rating of C or above. Mandatory HMO applications carry no accreditation discount.

Part A is non-refundable once the application is submitted. This is why getting the scheme right matters more than anything else in the application.

Where Self-Submitting Landlords Get Stuck

Having helped landlords think through this process, the sticking points are consistent:

Wrong scheme selection. The most expensive mistake. A landlord in one of the seven selective wards with a house share assumes selective licensing covers them — it does not if three or more occupants form two or more households and share basic facilities. The Part A fee is gone and they start again with the correct scheme.

Portal account confusion. Havering's licensing portal uses a separate login from the standard My Havering council account. Landlords sometimes create the wrong kind of account and cannot find the licensing application form.

Expired certificates. A Gas Safety Certificate that was 11 months old when the landlord started gathering documents is 13 months old by the time they submit. The portal does not warn you — the council reviews the dates during processing and requests a replacement, delaying the application.

Floor plan quality. A hand-drawn sketch on A4 paper may not meet the council's standard for showing room dimensions clearly. The council may request new plans, which adds weeks.

Assuming the application is automatic. Submitting the form does not grant the licence. The council reviews the application, may inspect the property, and issues the licence if approved; high application volumes can delay a decision. A valid, duly made pending application provides a statutory defence under Housing Act 2004 s95(3) and s72(4).

The Practical Timeline

For a self-managing landlord with documents already in hand:

1. Ward and scheme check: 15–30 minutes if you know your property's ward; longer if you are near a boundary
2. Document assembly: varies — if certificates exist, an hour to locate and convert to PDF; if any need renewing, days to weeks for engineer visits
3. Portal registration and application: 30–60 minutes for a straightforward single-property application
4. Council processing: the council warns that high application volumes can make licences take longer to issue than normal
5. Inspection (if required): scheduled at the council's discretion during the licence term

Total active time for the self-submitting landlord: roughly two hours, spread over a morning. The rest is waiting for the council to process.

Who Should Not Self-Submit

Self-submission works well for most one- or two-property landlords. It does not suit everyone:

• Landlords with ten or more properties may save time with a batch submission service, though the per-property cost adds up quickly
• Landlords facing active enforcement should speak to a solicitor before submitting — a pending application creates a statutory defence, but an ongoing investigation may involve additional factors
• Anyone who genuinely cannot use the online portal and has no one to help — the £117.10 paper surcharge is the alternative, but the portal is straightforward once you have the right documents ready

For everyone else — and especially for accidental landlords and buy-to-let investors with a single property in Havering — self-submission saves £240–£500 in agent or consultant fees and puts you in direct contact with the council if questions come up during processing.

The Landlord Licensing in Havering guide walks through every step in portal order, including the decision tree, the document checklist with certificate expiry tracking, the fee calculator, and a compliance tracker for the licence term and the scheme expiry on 17 March 2031.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the council treat my application differently if I submit it myself instead of through an agent?

No. The council processes the application based on the property's compliance and the applicant's fit-and-proper status. Whether you submit directly or a letting agent submits on your behalf makes no difference to how the application is assessed.

What happens if I start the application and realise I picked the wrong scheme?

If you have not yet paid the Part A fee, you can abandon the application and start a new one under the correct scheme. Part A is non-refundable once the application is submitted. This is why the scheme identification step — before you open the portal — is the most important part of the process.

Can I authorise someone else to submit without using a letting agent?

An agent can submit on behalf of the legal owner if formal authority-to-act documentation is submitted. Shared portal logins are prohibited. You remain the proposed licence holder and the person legally responsible for the property's compliance.

Do I need to join a landlord association before I apply?

No. Association membership is not a requirement for any of Havering's licensing schemes. However, qualifying membership or accreditation with the NRLA, LLAS, Propertymark or Safeagent can qualify you for a £100 discount on the Part B fee for selective and additional HMO licences. Whether the membership fee (£37–£90 per year) is worth the discount depends on your scheme — mandatory HMO applications carry no accreditation discount.

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