My Newham Portal: How to Apply for a Landlord Licence Online

The My Newham online portal is the standard route for property licence applications. Paper applications are also accepted, but attract a £100 surcharge on top of the standard fees. The portal works, but it has quirks that catch landlords out, and Newham Council explicitly does not provide technical support for portal access issues.

Setting Up Your Account

Go to newham.gov.uk/propertylicensing and create a My Newham account using a verified email address. The portal sends an authentication link. If it does not arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder — several landlord forums report the verification email landing in junk.

Use an email you check regularly. All subsequent licensing correspondence — application queries, the Notice of Intent, the Part B payment request — comes through this account.

The Address Lookup

Once logged in, enter your property's postcode and select the exact address from the list. The portal runs the address against Newham's ward boundary database and determines whether the property is in one of the 21 designated wards (requiring a selective or additional licence) or in the two excluded wards (Royal Victoria and Stratford Olympic Park).

If your address does not appear in the dropdown, it may be a new-build not yet registered in the council's address database. Contact the Property Licensing team at [email protected] or 020 3373 1950 to resolve this before attempting to submit.

Preparing Before You Log In

The portal does not reliably save incomplete drafts. If your session times out mid-application, you may need to re-enter everything from scratch. The safest approach is to have all information and documents assembled before you start:

• Gas Safety Certificate (CP12), dated within 12 months
• EICR with satisfactory overall result, within 5 years
• EPC with valid rating
• Floor plan with room dimensions in square metres and ceiling heights
• Contact details for all interested parties (mortgage lender, freeholder, joint owners)
• Proposed licence holder and property manager details
• Accreditation certificate if claiming the £50 discount

All documents should be clear PDF or image scans. Blurry scans that pass the portal's basic validation check can still cause the council to query the application later and delay processing.

Scheme Selection

The portal asks you to choose between Selective, Additional HMO and Mandatory HMO. It cross-checks the occupant count against the scheme rules. If you select selective for a property occupied by three or more people from two or more separate households who share amenities, the system will flag the mismatch. Work out your scheme before starting, subject to statutory exemptions — one occupant, a couple or two unrelated sharers means selective; three or four people from separate households sharing amenities means additional HMO; five or more people from two or more households sharing amenities means mandatory HMO.

The Fit and Proper Declaration

The portal requires you to declare whether the proposed licence holder or associates have unspent criminal convictions (fraud, violence, drugs, sexual offences), findings of unlawful discrimination, prior housing-related penalties or judgments, or involvement with properties under management orders or previous licence refusals. Answer honestly — false declarations are a separate offence under section 238 of the Housing Act 2004.

Payment and Submission

Part A is paid by debit or credit card at the end of the process. You receive a submission receipt and reference number. A statutory defence against prosecution applies only once Newham has received and verified the complete application and Part A fee as duly made, and while it remains pending; the receipt alone is not a licence and does not shield you from HHSRS enforcement or planning enforcement.

When Things Go Wrong

Newham Council's licensing contact pages state explicitly that the Property Licensing Group cannot assist with My Newham account access issues. If you cannot log in, you are directed to Newham's general switchboard. For application content queries, email [email protected] or call 020 3373 1950.

Landlords who need non-digital access, language interpretation or disability assistance can write to Private Sector Housing Standards, First Floor West Wing, Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road, London E16 2QU.

The Newham Landlord Licensing Guide includes offline preparation worksheets that mirror every portal field, so you can draft the entire application on paper before launching the live session — reducing the risk of timeouts and incomplete submissions.

See more England guides →