How to Avoid Losing the Part A Fee on a Westminster Landlord Licence Application

The single most expensive mistake a Westminster landlord makes during the licensing process is submitting an application under the wrong scheme or with an incomplete document set. Westminster City Council splits every licence fee into two stages: Part A is a processing charge paid at submission, and Part B is automatically debited after the council approves the application and issues the draft licence decision, before the final licence is issued. Part A is not refunded if an application is refused, rejected as invalid, or withdrawn; stated exceptions are duplicate payments and applications submitted in error for properties outside the designated ward boundary. That is £543 for a selective licence or £855 for an additional HMO licence at risk on an invalid or refused application.

The way to avoid this is straightforward: complete every verification step offline, on paper, before you open a live session on the MetaStreet portal.

Why Applications Get Rejected

Westminster rejects licence applications for a small number of predictable reasons. Each one is preventable with offline preparation.

Wrong scheme selected. Westminster runs three licensing schemes — selective licensing (15 of 18 wards), borough-wide additional HMO licensing (3–4 people from 2+ households), and mandatory HMO licensing (5+ people from 2+ households). A landlord with a two-person let in one of the 15 selective wards needs a selective licence. A landlord with three unrelated sharers needs an additional HMO licence. A landlord with five sharers from two or more households needs a mandatory HMO licence. Selecting the wrong one means the Part A fee is paid against an application the council cannot process under that scheme.

The three wards excluded from selective licensing — Pimlico South, St James's, and Vincent Square — are the most common source of wrong-scheme errors. A landlord in one of these wards with a single-family let does not need any licence. A landlord in one of these wards with three sharers needs an additional HMO licence, not a selective licence. A selective licence does not apply to an address in an excluded ward; an application submitted in error for an address outside the designated boundary is one of the stated Part A refund cases.

Missing or expired documents. The application requires current documents: a Gas Safety Certificate dated within the last 12 months, an EICR no older than five years with no C1 or C2 defects, a valid EPC no older than 10 years (minimum E rating unless exempt), scaled floor plans showing room dimensions in square metres, and a fit-and-proper person declaration. An incomplete or invalid application is not refunded its Part A fee, except in the stated duplicate-payment and outside-boundary cases.

Incorrect room measurements. HMO licence applications require room dimensions that meet national minimum sizes — 6.51 m² for a single adult, 10.22 m² for two adults, 4.64 m² for a child under 10. Westminster also applies discretionary HHSRS standards that can exceed these minimums. If a bedroom is below the statutory minimum, the council can allow up to 18 months for the landlord to reduce occupancy or reconfigure the room.

The Five-Step Offline Preparation Process

The key principle is this: do all your verification on paper first, then use the portal session purely to upload completed, verified documents. The portal is a submission tool, not a research tool.

Step 1: Verify Your Ward

Confirm whether your property sits in one of the 15 selective licensing wards (Designation 1 or Designation 2) or one of the three excluded wards (Pimlico South, St James's, Vincent Square). Use Westminster City Council's official GIS ward lookup and save the dated address confirmation. Record the result on a ward verification worksheet with the date you checked and the source you used.

This single step determines which scheme applies. Get it wrong and nothing else matters — you have paid Part A against the wrong application.

Step 2: Count Occupants and Map Household Relationships

Count the number of occupants in the property and identify their household relationships. A couple sharing a flat is one household. Two unrelated professionals sharing is two households. Three unrelated sharers from two or more households in a property with shared facilities is an HMO.

The occupant count and household composition determine whether you need a selective licence (a single household or 1–2 individuals in a designated ward, unless already covered by an HMO licence), an additional HMO licence (3–4 persons from 2+ households), or a mandatory HMO licence (5+ persons from 2+ households). Additional and mandatory HMO licensing apply borough-wide. Record these details on paper.

Step 3: Assemble and Verify Every Document

Before you open the portal, gather every required document and check its validity:

• Gas Safety Certificate (CP12): must be current (issued within the last 12 months)
• EICR: must be current (issued within the last 5 years)
• EPC: must be valid and accessible on the public register
• Scaled floor plan: room dimensions in square metres, measured wall-to-wall at the widest points — every bedroom must meet the applicable minimum
• Fit-and-proper declaration: for the proposed licence holder and any proposed manager
• Accreditation proof: if claiming the NRLA or LLAS Part B discount, have the membership certificate ready
• Overseas owner declaration: if the property owner lives outside the UK

Check each document against the application-stage validity limits: the Gas Safety Certificate must be dated within 12 months, the EICR within five years, and the EPC within 10 years (minimum E unless exempt).

Step 4: Calculate the Exact Fee

Work out the total payable before you submit, not during the portal session:

• Selective licence: Part A £543 + Part B £452 = £995 total before discounts
• Additional HMO licence: Part A £855 + Part B £685 = £1,540 total before discounts

Part B discounts: the accredited-landlord discount is 10% of the total selective fee (£99.50) or 10% of the HMO Part B fee; EPC rated B or higher gets 20% off Part B, and EPC rated C gets 10% off Part B. The £125 multi-leasehold discount also comes off Part B when multiple flats in the same freehold block have the same ownership and management control and the applications are submitted together. The council's selective-fee example combines the £99.50 accredited-landlord discount with the £90.40 EPC B-or-higher discount, for £189.90 off Part B.

Calculate your net Part B amount on paper. When the portal asks for payment, you already know the exact figure and can verify the council's calculation matches yours.

Step 5: Submit as a Copy-Paste Exercise

With your ward confirmed, your scheme identified, your documents verified, your room measurements recorded, and your fee calculated, the portal session becomes administrative data entry — not research. You log in to MetaStreet, create an account, select the correct scheme, upload each document from your checklist, enter the room dimensions from your floor plan, confirm the fee matches your calculation, and pay Part A.

Every answer comes from your completed worksheets. Nothing is worked out live.

The Structured Approach

The Landlord Licensing in Westminster guide builds this entire offline preparation process into seven printable worksheets — ward verification record, licence scheme decision flowchart, document readiness checklist, two-stage fee calculator with discount stacking, application progress log, compliance tracker, and renewal planning calendar. The worksheets are designed so that every verification happens on paper before Part A is committed.

The free checklist gives you the steps. The full guide gives you the assembly ledger — the complete offline preparation process, with worksheets, fee calculations, document verification, and a step-by-step portal walkthrough — so the portal session is a copy-paste exercise, not a research project under financial pressure.

Who This Approach Is For

• Self-managing landlords in Westminster who want to submit their own licence application without risking the Part A fee
• Landlords who have already tried the MetaStreet portal and found it confusing or inaccessible
• Landlords applying for the first time who have never used Westminster's licensing system
• Anyone who has heard about Part A fee losses from other landlords and wants to avoid the same mistake

Who This Approach Is NOT For

• Landlords who want full delegation — if you prefer to pay a letting agent £400–£540 to handle the submission, the offline preparation worksheets can still serve as an audit tool, but they are designed for self-submission
• Anyone seeking help with a licence that has already been rejected — this process prevents rejection, it does not appeal one

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get the Part A fee refunded if Westminster rejects my application?

Part A is not refunded if an application is refused, rejected as invalid, or withdrawn. The stated exceptions are duplicate payments and applications submitted in error for properties outside the designated ward boundary. This is why offline preparation before submission is so important — the financial risk is front-loaded.

What if I am not sure which of the three schemes applies to my property?

Start with your ward. If your property is in one of the three excluded wards (Pimlico South, St James's, Vincent Square) and let to a single household, you do not need a selective licence. In a designated ward, a selective licence generally applies to a privately rented single household or one or two individuals, unless the property is already covered by an HMO licence. A 3–4 person HMO from 2+ households needs an additional HMO licence; a property with 5+ people from 2+ households needs a mandatory HMO licence. The decision depends on occupant count and household composition — work through it on paper before you open the portal.

Does the council warn me if I select the wrong scheme on the portal?

The council validates and assesses the application after submission. A wrong-scheme application can be rejected as invalid, in which case Part A is not refunded except for the stated duplicate-payment and outside-boundary cases. The portal is a submission tool, not an advisory tool.

How long does the council take to process a licence application?

The application goes through council validation and assessment. Inspection is risk-based: higher-risk premises may receive a physical pre-licensing inspection, while lower-risk applications with complete documents may be assessed on the documents and inspected later. If the council approves the application, Part B is automatically collected after the draft licence decision and before the final licence is issued.

What if my documents expire while the council is processing my application?

If a Gas Safety Certificate or EICR expires during the processing period, you may be asked to provide an updated version before the licence is granted. Submit with the most current versions available and keep renewal dates tracked so you can provide replacements promptly if the council requests them.

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