Lee Green Selective Licensing: What Lewisham Landlords Need to Know

Lee Green is one of the 16 wards covered by Lewisham's selective licensing scheme, falling under Designation 2. The scheme runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029, and any single-household let or two-sharer flat in Lee Green needs a selective licence.

The Blackheath Boundary Issue

Lee Green sits directly adjacent to Blackheath — one of only two Lewisham wards excluded from selective licensing. The selective scheme uses the pre-May 2022 ward map, not the current electoral boundaries. Streets along the Lee Green–Blackheath border can fall on either side of the old line, and a property that shows as "Lee Green" on a current-boundary lookup might actually sit in pre-2022 Blackheath (exempt) or vice versa.

This is not a hypothetical edge case. The 2022 boundary review shifted several streets between these two wards. If your property is anywhere near the border — roughly the area around Burnt Ash Road, Handen Road or the streets between Lee High Road and Blackheath Village — verify your address using the council's GIS address checker on the MetaStreet portal.

A property in the excluded part of pre-2022 Blackheath does not need a selective licence, though it would still need an HMO licence if occupied by three or more people from two or more households sharing basic amenities (HMO licensing is borough-wide and not ward-dependent).

Fees and Application

The selective licence fee structure is the same across all 16 designated wards:

• Part A: £160 (non-refundable processing fee, paid on submission)
• Part B: £480 (paid before the licence is granted)
• Total: £640 (£544 with the NRLA or London Landlord Accreditation Scheme discount)

Applications go through the MetaStreet portal. You will need a valid EICR, gas safety certificate (if gas-supplied), EPC rated E or above, and written confirmation that interested parties have been notified.

Lee Green's Housing Mix

Lee Green has a high proportion of Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses, many of which have been converted into two or three flats. If your property is a flat in a converted house, the licensing requirement depends on the flat's own occupancy — a single-household flat needs a selective licence, while a flat with three or more occupants from two or more households sharing basic amenities needs an HMO licence.

If the whole building qualifies as a section 257 HMO (a non-compliant conversion where fewer than two-thirds of flats are owner-occupied), the building itself is excluded from additional HMO licensing, but each flat is assessed individually.

Next Steps

Confirm your address falls within pre-2022 Lee Green using the council's GIS tool. If it does, the Lewisham licensing guide walks through the application from start to finish — documents, portal steps, fees, conditions and what happens at inspection.

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