Wandsworth Licensing Guide vs Free Council Website: What You Actually Get

Every fact in a Wandsworth landlord licensing guide is available free on wandsworth.gov.uk. The designation notices, fee schedules, discount criteria, licence conditions and application portal are all published by the council at no cost. If a guide claims to contain exclusive information the council does not publish, that is a red flag — licensing requirements are statutory, not proprietary.

So the honest question is not "what information does a guide contain?" but "what does a guide do with the information that the council website does not?" The answer is assembly, sequence and error prevention — and whether those are worth paying for depends entirely on how many properties you are licensing and how familiar you already are with Wandsworth's schemes.

What the Council Website Gives You

Wandsworth publishes authoritative, legally binding source data across its licensing pages:

• Scheme definitions for selective (Designations 1 and 2), additional HMO and mandatory HMO
• Ward boundary maps and designation notices as PDFs
• Fee schedules with Part A and Part B breakdowns
• Discount criteria (accredited landlord, EPC grade, multi-dwelling, Gold Standard and social rented sector)
• Licence condition schedules for each scheme
• The Regulatory Services Hub portal for application submission
• FAQs on fit-and-proper person tests, manager nominations and licence renewals

This is complete. If you read every page and PDF, you will know everything you need to know to submit a correct application.

What the Council Website Does Not Do

The council publishes information. It does not organise that information into a workflow.

Designation 1 (covering Furzedown, South Balham, Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway) sits on one page. Designation 2 (East Putney, West Putney, Northcote) is a separate PDF notice dated December 2025. The additional HMO conditions are a third document. The fee schedule is a fourth. The PAT/EET appliance testing requirement — which Wandsworth mandates for additional HMO properties with supplied electrical goods, beyond what national rules require — appears in the licence conditions document, not on the application page.

A self-managing landlord doing this for the first time has to:

1. Work out which ward the property sits in (ward boundaries do not match postcodes)
2. Determine occupancy count and household composition
3. Cross-reference those facts against four scheme definitions across multiple pages
4. Identify the correct scheme: Selective Designation 1 or 2, Additional HMO or Mandatory HMO
5. Find the fee for that specific scheme and calculate applicable discounts
6. Identify every required document, including local requirements not obvious from national guidance
7. Prepare every portal answer before logging in; a saved draft does not protect against enforcement
8. Submit a complete application with the required documents and Part A paid

Each step is possible from the council website. But steps 1 through 4 require cross-referencing at least three pages and two PDF notices simultaneously, step 5 requires reading the fee schedule alongside the discount criteria page, and step 6 requires reading the licence conditions document (not the application instructions) to discover the PAT/EET requirement. A saved draft is not a valid application; only a complete, submitted application with the required documents and Part A paid is valid.

What a Licensing Guide Adds

A guide written specifically for Wandsworth takes the same facts and arranges them in execution order. Instead of reading six pages and assembling the sequence yourself, you work through a single document that connects each step to the next: address → ward → occupancy → scheme → documents → fees → discounts → portal.

The practical additions over the council website:

• A decision framework: start with your property's address and work through to the correct scheme identification without guessing
• A document assembly checklist: every required document for every scheme, with format specifications (floor plans in square metres, current EICR, PAT/EET declarations) listed in one place
• A fee calculator with discount stacking: total fees for each scheme with every applicable discount combination, so you know the exact amount before the portal payment screen
• Offline worksheets: answers to every portal question prepared on paper before you log in, so the live session is data entry, not research
• A compliance calendar: post-grant conditions converted into a timeline of renewals and deadlines across the licence term

None of this information is new. All of it is assembled — which is the difference between having access to facts and having a system for acting on them.

When the Free Route Is Enough

The council website is sufficient if:

• You have been through a Wandsworth licensing application before and know the process
• You are a professional property manager who handles licence applications regularly
• You only need to confirm a specific fact — a fee amount, a ward boundary, a deadline
• You are comfortable cross-referencing multiple pages and PDFs simultaneously and are confident you will identify every requirement without a checklist

For these situations, paying for a guide adds nothing you cannot do yourself.

When a Guide Is Worth It

A guide earns its cost when a wrong or incomplete application could delay the process. Standard Part A fees are £529 for a selective licence, £903 for an additional HMO licence and from £1,036 for a mandatory HMO licence. Wandsworth generally does not refund fees after an application has been processed, but says it refunds duplicate or wrong applications and applications for properties that do not require a licence.

If you are a first-time applicant, if you are unsure which of four schemes applies to your property, if you have never navigated the Regulatory Services Hub portal, or if you are an accidental landlord who is not sure whether three tenants on a joint tenancy counts as an HMO under Wandsworth's local rules (it can) — a structured guide reduces the risk of applying under the wrong scheme and delaying the application.

The maths is simple: the guide costs a fraction of the Part A fee. If it prevents a delay and a second submission, it has paid for itself several times over.

The Wandsworth landlord licensing guide covers all four schemes with decision worksheets, document checklists, fee calculators and a portal walkthrough — seven PDFs designed to get the application right the first time.

Who This Is For

• First-time applicants who want a structured workflow rather than assembling one from six council pages
• Accidental landlords who have just discovered a licensing requirement and are not sure which scheme applies
• Landlords in newly designated wards (Designation 2: East Putney, West Putney, Northcote since April 2026) navigating selective licensing for the first time
• Anyone whose Part A fee is large enough that a wrong-scheme application would be a costly mistake

Who This Is NOT For

• Experienced landlords who have successfully navigated a Wandsworth licence application before
• Professional property managers who handle licence applications as part of their day-to-day work
• Landlords who only need a single fact check (a fee amount, a ward boundary) — the council website answers that in seconds

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the guide contain information the council does not publish?

No. Every licensing requirement is statutory and published by the council. The guide assembles, sequences and cross-references that information into a step-by-step workflow. It does not contain exclusive or proprietary licensing data.

Will the guide become outdated when designations change?

The guide dates the rules it describes. Designation 1 runs until June 2030; Designation 2 until March 2031. When a designation is renewed or a fee schedule changes, the guide's dated reference lets you see exactly which version of the rules it covers and cross-check against the council's current page.

Can I use the council website and the guide together?

That is the intended approach. The guide organises the process; the council website provides the live portal, current fee schedule and official application submission. The guide links to the relevant council pages so you can verify current figures before submitting.

What about free overview sites like London Property Licensing?

Sites like London Property Licensing provide helpful high-level summaries of Wandsworth's schemes. They cover scheme structures and deadlines but do not offer printable document checklists, fee calculators with discount stacking, or step-by-step portal preparation. They are a useful starting point alongside the council website, but they do not replace the workflow assembly that a dedicated guide provides.

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