Barking and Dagenham Landlord Licensing — Complete Application Guide

You know you need a licence. You just can't work out which one — or where to start.

Barking and Dagenham now runs three separate property licensing schemes at the same time — selective licensing across all 19 wards since April 2025, additional HMO licensing borough-wide since January 2025, and mandatory HMO licensing nationwide — and the council's information is scattered across multiple web pages, designation notices, fee tables and portal screens. The penalty for getting it wrong is a civil penalty of up to £40,000, or a Rent Repayment Order where your tenant claims back up to 24 months of rent.

You've probably spent an evening bouncing between council pages, trying to work out whether your property in Dagenham needs a selective licence or an additional HMO licence, what "Part A" and "Part B" fees mean, which documents the portal will ask for before it lets you submit, and whether you still qualify for a compliance discount. The answers are out there — but nobody has put them in one place, in order.

The LBBD Licensing Route Map

This guide is a complete route map through Barking and Dagenham's three licensing schemes — from working out which licence your property needs to tracking the conditions for the full five-year term. It replaces the hours of council-page research with a single, step-by-step reference you can print and work through.

It is not legal advice, not a council publication, and not connected with any government body. It is an independent guide that organises the public rules into the order you need them.

Which licence? — answered in one decision tree

A single flowchart that asks four questions about your property — the number of tenants, the number of households, the building type, and any exemptions — and tells you whether you need a mandatory HMO licence (5+ persons, 2+ households), an additional HMO licence (3–4 persons, 2+ households), a selective licence (single household or two sharers), or no licence at all. Includes the section 257 converted-block rule and the purpose-built flat exception. No more guessing which scheme to start with.

Every document, in the order the portal asks for it

Gas Safety Certificate, Electrical Installation Condition Report (no outstanding C1 or C2 codes), Energy Performance Certificate rated A to E, dimensioned floor plans showing room areas in square metres, fire safety evidence for HMOs, and every fit-and-proper-person disclosure — laid out in a document-preparation matrix so you can assemble the file before you open the portal. No more submission timeouts because you didn't have the EICR to hand.

Fees, Part A/B split, and every discount you can claim

The full fee structure for all three schemes — including the £950 selective fee (£650 Part A + £300 Part B), the £1,400 additional HMO fee, and the per-room mandatory HMO fee — with the LLAS accreditation discount, the Silver and Gold compliance tiers, and what evidence you need to claim each one. The guide explains which part of the fee is non-refundable, what triggers the Part B invoice, and why the three-month penalty threshold matters.

The three-month trap — and how to avoid it

If LBBD finds that a property has been let without a licence for more than three months after the scheme started, the council restricts the licence to a one-year term and strips all fee discounts. For a selective licence, that turns a potential £700 (with the Gold discount) into £950 for a single year instead of five. The guide explains the trap, the timeline, and the worked examples so you submit before the window closes.

Licence conditions and five-year tracker

What the council expects for the full licence term: annual gas safety renewals, smoke and CO alarm testing, EICR cycles, occupancy limits, periodic property inspections (every six months for selective, every three months for HMOs), waste management records, anti-social behaviour logs, and tenancy deposit compliance. The post-grant tracker gives you the dates and the paperwork, so a routine inspection or a licence renewal doesn't catch you off guard.

Enforcement: what actually happens if you let without a licence

Civil penalties under the Housing Act 2004, prosecution with unlimited fines, Rent Repayment Orders of up to 24 months' rent (for offences from May 2026), banning orders, and why a pending application is a statutory defence — explained plainly, with the council's enforcement approach and the evidence that protects you.

Who this is for

• Private landlords with a rented home or shared house in Barking and Dagenham who need to work out whether the property needs a licence, which one, and how to apply.
• Small or accidental landlords self-managing one or two properties who want to handle the application themselves instead of paying an agent or consultancy.
• Landlords whose agent handles the application but who want an independent checklist — because the licence holder, not the agent, is legally responsible for the declarations and the ongoing conditions.
• Non-UK resident landlords who need to appoint a UK-based manager and understand the joint compliance obligations.

Why not just use the council's website?

The council's website is free and you should use it — you need a portal account to submit the application anyway. What the council does not give you is a single reference that puts the three schemes side by side, tells you which one applies to your property, lists the documents in the order the portal asks for them, calculates the fee after discounts, and tracks the conditions for five years. That is what this guide does.

Compared to a letting agent's licensing service (typically £300–£600 on top of the council fee), or a compliance consultancy such as Lint Group at £1,400+, this is a fraction of the cost — and you keep full control of your application and your data.

What you get

• The full guide — 14 chapters covering all three licensing schemes, the application, documents, fees, discounts, conditions, enforcement, HHSRS inspections and the national PRS database (46 pages, PDF, print-ready).
• The dated compliance checklist — a 25-item summary of the steps, forms, fees and deadlines you can print and work through.
• Scheme selection worksheet — work through the occupancy test to determine which licence your property needs.
• Application and document tracker — log every certificate, expiry date, payment and portal reference in one place.
• Inspection preparation checklist — walk the property room by room before the council inspection.
• Licence condition compliance log — track ongoing conditions through the full five-year licence term.
• Fee calculation worksheet — calculate your total cost after the Silver and Gold compliance discounts.

All files cover the rules as at October 2026, with direct links to the council pages for rechecking.

Satisfaction guarantee

If the guide doesn't help, email [email protected] for a full refund, no time limit. No form to fill in, no questions.

Get started

Download the free checklist to see how the guide is structured. If you want the full route map — the decision tree, the document matrix, the fee worksheets and the five-year tracker — get the complete guide for .