Sunderland HMO Application: Documents, Floor Plans and the Online Portal

Sunderland City Council requires all mandatory HMO licence applications to go through its online portal. Paper submissions aren't accepted unless you've been granted a formal accessibility accommodation. The form takes roughly 60 minutes to complete, and the council charges a £123 surcharge on your Part 2 invoice for applications submitted with missing or incorrect documents.

Before You Start: The Document Evidence Matrix

Gather the required upload documents before opening the portal. You can save drafts, but incomplete submissions risk the surcharge. Here's what the council needs:

Gas Safety Certificate (CP12): An annual inspection report from a Gas Safe registered engineer. Must be current — not expired, not "booked for next week."

Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR): A satisfactory report issued within the last five years, compliant with the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. "Satisfactory" means no C1 (danger present) or C2 (potentially dangerous) observations, or that any such defects have been remediated and retested.

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC): Keep a valid EPC, normally rated E or above unless a valid exemption applies, for the letting. Sunderland's current HMO application checklist does not list the EPC as a required upload.

Floor Plans: This is where applications can go wrong. The plans do not need to be to scale, but must identify each room, show its size in square metres (m²), and mark fire door positions ("FD") and smoke or heat detector locations ("SD"/"HD"). The measurements need to be accurate — council officers will verify them during the property inspection.

Fire Alarm and Emergency Lighting Certification: A fire alarm test certificate less than 12 months old, to BS 5839; an emergency lighting certificate less than 12 months old, if applicable, to BS 5266.

Fit-and-Proper-Person Declaration: A signed self-declaration covering your criminal history, housing enforcement history, and any previous licensing refusals or management orders. The council can request a Basic DBS disclosure if your history raises concerns.

The Application Steps

1. Create an account on the council's Idox licensing portal and set up a draft application
2. Enter property details — address, ward, number of storeys, total bedrooms, room dimensions (all in m²), fire safety systems, tenancy structure
3. Upload certificates — every document listed above, in digital format
4. Complete the fit-and-proper declaration — confirm your compliance history honestly
5. Notify interested parties — Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 2004 requires you to notify joint owners, mortgage lenders, freeholders, leaseholders, and managing agents in writing that you've applied. You'll certify this within the portal
6. Pay the Part 1 fee — £734 for a new application in 2026/27, by credit or debit card
7. Receive acknowledgement — the council confirms receipt within two weeks

After submission, the council schedules a property inspection, issues a draft licence (Intention Notice) with a 14-day representation window, and — if approved — invoices the Part 2 fee (£303) before issuing the final five-year licence. The whole process typically takes 12 to 16 weeks.

What Gets Applications Rejected

Applications don't get formally "rejected" as a first step — they get flagged as incomplete, which triggers the £123 surcharge and delays processing. The most common problems:

• Floor plans without m² measurements — the single most frequent error
• Expired safety certificates — particularly gas certificates that have passed their annual renewal date
• Missing fire alarm certification — landlords assume smoke detectors alone are sufficient; the council expects BS 5839 testing documentation for the detection system
• Incomplete fit-and-proper declarations — failing to disclose previous enforcement action in another local authority area
• No evidence of interested-party notification — the portal asks you to confirm you've notified relevant parties, and the council does follow up

The Fit-and-Proper-Person Test

Under Section 66 of the Housing Act 2004, both the proposed licence holder and the designated property manager must pass this test. The council checks whether you have:

• Committed offences involving fraud, dishonesty, violence, drugs, or sexual offences
• Practised unlawful discrimination
• Contravened housing or landlord-and-tenant law (including unrectified hazard notices or previous civil penalties)
• Had properties subject to management orders or licences revoked by any council

Most applicants pass on the basis of their self-declaration alone. The council reserves the right to request a Basic DBS certificate where risk factors or enforcement history are present.

Floor Plan Specifications

The floor plans are worth getting right because they're checked against physical measurements during inspection. Requirements:

• All rooms measured and annotated in square metres
• Sleeping rooms clearly labelled with proposed maximum occupancy (single or double)
• Fire doors marked with "FD"
• Smoke and heat detectors marked with "SD" and "HD"
• Kitchen, bathroom, and WC facilities identified

If you don't have professional floor plans, a clearly drawn and accurately measured plan is acceptable. It does not need to be to scale, but it must show the required room sizes and locations of fire doors and smoke/heat detectors.

The Sunderland Landlord Licensing Guide includes a complete document evidence matrix and floor plan annotation reference, designed to get your application through the portal cleanly on the first submission.

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