How to Prepare Your Lewisham Property Licensing Documents Without an Agent

If you're preparing a Lewisham property licence application yourself, the key is assembling every document before you open the MetaStreet portal — not during the submission process. The portal asks for specific certificates, plans, and declarations in a fixed order, and an incomplete upload can waste your non-refundable Part A fee (£160 for selective, £250 per HMO lettable unit). An agent charges £300–£600 plus VAT to collect and upload these same documents. With a clear list and a few weeks of lead time to order any missing certificates, you can do it yourself for the cost of the certificates alone.

This walkthrough covers the full document set for all three Lewisham licensing schemes — selective, additional HMO, and mandatory HMO — in the order the MetaStreet portal requests them.

Before You Start: Know Which Licence You Need

The documents differ slightly depending on the scheme. Selective licensing (single-household lets in 16 designated wards) requires fewer property-specific documents than HMO licensing (shared houses borough-wide), which adds floor plans, fire safety documentation, and amenity standards evidence.

If you're not sure which licence applies, the test is straightforward: count the occupants, count the households, and check the ward. The Lewisham Landlord Licensing Guide includes a five-step decision hierarchy that resolves this in under five minutes. For this document preparation guide, we'll cover the full set — selective and HMO — so you can skip anything that doesn't apply to your scheme.

The Complete Document Checklist

1. Gas Safety Certificate (CP12)

Required for: all three schemes

A current Gas Safety Certificate issued by a Gas Safe registered engineer, covering every gas appliance and flue in the property. The certificate must be valid (renewed annually) and must have been issued within the 12 months before your application date.

How to get it: book a Gas Safe registered engineer. Expect to pay £60–£90 for a standard check on a single-appliance property. The engineer issues the certificate on the day of the inspection.

Common rejection reason: expired certificates. If your current CP12 expires next month and you're applying now, get it renewed first — the council checks the expiry date against the application date.

2. Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR)

Required for: all three schemes

An EICR issued by a qualified electrician (registered with NICEIC, NAPIT, or equivalent competent person scheme), rated satisfactory with no outstanding C1 (danger present) or C2 (potentially dangerous) observations. The report must be less than five years old.

How to get it: book a registered electrician. Costs vary: £150–£300 for a standard flat or house. If the report returns C1 or C2 codes, you must get the remedial work done and obtain a satisfactory EICR before applying. The council will not process an application with outstanding C1 or C2 codes.

Common rejection reason: uploading an EICR with C2 codes and assuming the council will overlook them. They won't. Get the remedials done first.

3. Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

Required for: all three schemes

A valid EPC rated A to E. Properties rated F or G cannot be legally let under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) regulations unless you have a valid exemption registered on the PRS Exemptions Register.

How to get it: search the EPC Register (gov.uk) to check whether your property already has a valid one (they last 10 years). If not, book a domestic energy assessor — typically £60–£100. The certificate is uploaded to the national register, and you download the PDF from there.

Common rejection reason: an expired EPC or one rated F/G without a registered MEES exemption. Both block the application.

4. Floor Plans with Room Dimensions (HMO Only)

Required for: additional HMO and mandatory HMO schemes

Dimensioned floor plans showing the net usable area of every habitable room in square metres. Floor area where the ceiling height is below 1.5 metres must be excluded from the measurement — this matters in attic conversions and rooms under sloping ceilings. Each bedroom must meet the minimum room size: 6.51 m² for one person, 10.22 m² for two people.

How to get it: prepare a legible dimensioned plan showing every room, its area in square metres, window locations, and fire exits. Exclude floor area where the ceiling is below 1.5 metres. Check the council's current format requirements before uploading a self-drawn plan.

Not needed for selective licensing: single-household lets don't have room-size requirements.

5. Fire Risk Assessment (HMO Only)

Required for: additional HMO and mandatory HMO schemes

A fire risk assessment is required for both Additional and Mandatory HMO applications. It should cover escape routes, detection systems (smoke alarms, heat detectors), fire doors where required, and emergency lighting for shared areas in larger HMOs. Alarm evidence does not replace the assessment for smaller HMOs (3–4 occupants under additional licensing).

How to get it: hire a fire risk assessor (£150–£400 depending on property size). For smaller HMOs, include the assessment alongside evidence of required alarm installation and testing. Keep the purchase receipt, installation date, and test record.

6. Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Evidence

Required for: all three schemes (since the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Regulations 2022)

Evidence that smoke alarms are installed on every storey with a habitable room, and that a carbon monoxide alarm is installed in any room with a fixed combustion appliance (gas boiler, gas fire). The alarms must be tested at the start of each new tenancy.

How to get it: photograph the installed alarms, keep the purchase receipts (showing the alarm model and date), and retain a signed record of the start-of-tenancy test.

7. Fit-and-Proper-Person Declaration

Required for: all three schemes

A fit-and-proper-person declaration covers specified offences, unlawful discrimination, adverse housing-law judgments or civil penalties, and relevant control orders or licence refusals or revocations. The proposed licence holder and managing agent are assessed.

The MetaStreet portal presents this as a set of questions during the application. You don't need a separate document — but you do need to read the questions in advance and answer them accurately. If any of those matters apply, consider legal advice if you're unsure how they affect the assessment.

8. Interested Parties Notice

Required for: all three schemes

Under the Housing Act 2004, you must notify all "interested parties" — anyone who is a tenant, long leaseholder, mortgagee, or freeholder of the property or any part of it — that you're applying for a licence. The portal asks for their names and confirmation that notice has been served.

This is the step that trips up the most landlords. "Interested parties" includes your mortgage lender, the freeholder (if the property is leasehold), and any existing tenant. You don't need their consent — just evidence that you've notified them.

How to handle it: send a written notice (email or letter) to each interested party stating that you're applying for a property licence under the Housing Act 2004, naming the property address and the scheme. Keep a copy with the date sent. The portal may ask you to upload this evidence.

The Assembly Sequence

Two to four weeks before you plan to submit:

1. Check what you already have. Search the EPC Register for a valid EPC. Check your files for the most recent Gas Safety Certificate and EICR. If you've had an HMO licence before, check for existing floor plans.

2. Order anything missing. Gas Safety Certificate and EICR are the most common gaps — book them early, as engineers can have two- to three-week waiting lists. If the EICR comes back with C1 or C2 codes, budget another one to two weeks for remedial work and a re-test.

3. Prepare the fit-and-proper declaration. Review the declaration questions on the MetaStreet portal (you can browse the form without submitting). If anything applies, resolve it before you start the application.

4. Send the interested parties notice. Notify your mortgage lender, freeholder, and tenant(s). Keep dated copies.

5. Assemble everything in one folder. PDF format, named clearly (e.g., "Gas-Safety-Certificate-2026.pdf", "EICR-2026-satisfactory.pdf"). When you open the portal, you'll upload each file in sequence — having them ready means no session timeouts.

Who This Is For

• Self-managing landlords preparing a first-time Lewisham licence application without an agent
• Landlords renewing a licence who want to make sure their documents are still current and compliant
• Accidental landlords who've never dealt with licensing paperwork and want a clear, ordered list
• Landlords whose agent previously handled everything but who are taking the application in-house this cycle

Who This Is NOT For

• Landlords looking for someone to collect and submit the documents for them — that's what a licensing agent does (£300–£600 + VAT)
• Anyone needing advice on remedial work (C1/C2 electrical faults, structural fire safety) — hire the relevant professional
• Landlords outside Lewisham — other boroughs have different portal systems and document requirements

The Document Preparation Is the Hard Part

The MetaStreet portal itself is straightforward. You enter the property address, select the scheme, answer the declaration questions, upload the documents, and pay the fee. The portal is where everything comes together, but it's not where the work happens.

The work happens in the weeks before: checking which certificates are valid, ordering replacements, getting remedial work done, measuring rooms for floor plans, and notifying interested parties. That preparation stage is exactly what a licensing agent's fee covers — and exactly what a structured guide replaces.

The Lewisham Landlord Licensing Guide includes a pre-submission document checklist that itemises every certificate with spaces for reference numbers, expiry dates, and completion status, plus a fee calculation worksheet for the Part A/Part B split across all three schemes. It's designed for landlords doing this themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

How far in advance should I start preparing documents?

Allow four to six weeks. The Gas Safety Certificate and EICR are the longest lead items — engineers can have multi-week waiting lists, and if the EICR returns faults, you'll need time for remedial work and a re-test. Everything else (EPC check, floor plans, interested parties notice) can be done in a few days.

Can I use documents from a previous licence application?

Yes, as long as they're still valid. A Gas Safety Certificate must be less than 12 months old. An EICR lasts 5 years. An EPC lasts 10 years. Floor plans remain valid unless you've changed the property layout. Check every expiry date before reusing a document.

What if I can't find my mortgage lender to send the interested parties notice?

Check your mortgage statement or the lender's website for the current mortgagee's contact details. If the loan has been sold or securitised, ask the lender which entity is the mortgagee and where to send statutory notices. Keep a dated copy and evidence of delivery.

Do I need a professional surveyor for the floor plans?

The application requires a dimensioned floor plan but the available guidance does not specify that a surveyor must prepare it. The plan must show room dimensions and areas in square metres, window locations, and fire exit routes. Exclude any floor area below a 1.5-metre ceiling height, and check the council's current format requirements before submitting a self-drawn plan.

What happens if a document expires while the council is processing my application?

Renew it proactively and contact Lewisham's Private Sector Housing Agency to confirm how to submit the replacement. The portal's post-submission document update process is not set out in the published instructions.

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