Lambeth Landlord Licensing: What Every Private Landlord Needs to Know

Lambeth now runs three separate property licensing schemes — and if you own a rented home anywhere in the borough, at least one of them almost certainly applies to you. Getting the wrong one (or ignoring the requirement entirely) risks a civil penalty of up to £40,000 and a rent repayment order covering 24 months of rent.

The Three Licensing Schemes in Lambeth

Lambeth operates under Parts 2 and 3 of the Housing Act 2004. Each scheme targets a different type of rental property:

Selective licensing covers ordinary private rented homes let to a single household or up to two unrelated sharers. It runs across 23 of the borough's 25 wards, split into two phases: Phase 1 (four wards from 2 September 2024) and Phase 2 (nineteen additional wards from 1 September 2025). Only Vauxhall and Waterloo & South Bank are exempt from selective licensing.

Additional HMO licensing catches smaller houses in multiple occupation — properties let to three or four unrelated people forming two or more households. This scheme is borough-wide and runs until 8 December 2026.

Mandatory HMO licensing applies to larger HMOs with five or more people from two or more households. It runs borough-wide with no expiry date because it is a national statutory duty under Section 55 of the Housing Act 2004.

A strict legal hierarchy governs which scheme applies. Mandatory HMO takes priority over additional HMO, and both take priority over selective licensing. A property never needs two licences at once.

How to Work Out Which Licence You Need

Start with three questions:

1. Where is the property? Check whether your ward falls in Phase 1, Phase 2, or one of the two exempt wards. Lambeth's ward checker tool on lambeth.gov.uk confirms this by full property address.

2. How many people live there? Count every individual occupant — children included.

3. How many separate households? Unrelated sharers each count as a separate household. A couple and their children form one household.

A single family in a Phase 1 or Phase 2 ward needs a selective licence. Three unrelated sharers anywhere in Lambeth need an additional HMO licence. Five or more people from two or more households triggers mandatory HMO licensing regardless of ward.

Fees at a Glance

Selective licences cost £1,025 per property, split into a non-refundable Part A processing fee of £717.50 (paid on submission) and a Part B enforcement fee of £307.50 (invoiced after the council approves the draft licence).

HMO licences are charged per habitable room at £550 each — so a four-bedroom HMO with a living room available to tenants would cost £2,750 across five habitable rooms.

Discounts are available: £75 off Part B for LLAS or NRLA accreditation, £50 off Part B for an EPC rated C or higher, and £100 off Part A for the second flat onwards in a multi-unit block application.

What Happens If You Don't Apply

Since 1 May 2026, the Renters' Rights Act raised the maximum civil penalty for operating without a licence to £40,000 per offence. Tenants can also apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order of up to 24 months' rent. Lambeth's enforcement team issued over £1.1 million in civil penalties across 450 enforcement actions in a single 12-month period, so these are not theoretical risks.

From 1 May 2026, Section 21 no-fault evictions are abolished for private-sector assured tenancies; landlords now seek possession through revised Section 8 grounds.

Getting It Right First Time

The application goes through Lambeth's Metastreet portal at hmolicensing.lambeth.gov.uk. You will need a gas safety certificate, an EICR with no outstanding C1 or C2 defects, a valid EPC, annotated floor plans showing room dimensions in square metres, a fire risk assessment, and a copy of the tenancy agreement. Every safety certificate must have at least three months of validity remaining at the point of upload.

The application is only legally "duly made" once all documents are uploaded and Part A is paid. Starting a draft or paying the fee without uploading certificates does not give you the statutory defence against enforcement — a distinction that catches landlords who assume the receipt alone covers them during processing delays.

Our Lambeth landlord licensing guide walks through every step of the process: which licence your property needs, the documents, the portal, the fees, the discounts, and what to do once the licence arrives. It covers all three schemes with the rules as at October 2026.

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