Landlords · HMO
HMO conversion and licensing works in London.
Turning a house into a compliant, licensable HMO, or bringing an existing one up to the conditions your council has attached. Fire separation, room sizes, amenities and the certificates that go with them.
Built to the conditions,
not to a guess.
You send us the schedule of conditions from the council. We price against it line by line, so nothing gets missed and nothing gets gold-plated.
FD30 and FD30S doors with the correct intumescent strips, seals and closers, plus protecting the escape route and boxing exposed services.
Grade A or D systems with the correct coverage for the layout, installed and certificated to BS 5839 Part 6.
Reconfiguration where a room falls under the statutory minimum, and layout changes that make the amenity ratios work.
Additional or upgraded facilities to meet the amenity standard for the number of occupants.
Where the escape route needs it, installed and commissioned with the annual duration test set up.
EICR, gas safety and the fire alarm certificate, arranged together so the licence application is not held up waiting on one.
Floor and party wall treatments where the licence conditions or building control require them.
From schedule
to sign-off.
Schedule review
Send us the council's conditions or the refusal notice. We read it and price against it, rather than quoting a generic HMO package.
Fixed quote
Every condition priced as a line item, so you can see exactly what each part of the licence is costing you.
Works
Carried out in a sequence that keeps the property lettable as early as possible, with occupied HMOs phased room by room.
Certificates
Every certificate the application needs, issued and sent through together rather than trickling in.
Answered
plainly.
Mandatory licensing applies to properties let to five or more people forming two or more households. On top of that, many London boroughs run additional or selective licensing schemes that catch smaller properties, and the schemes change. Check your specific borough, because the answer genuinely differs street by street in London.
Fire doors, most often. Wrong rating, missing intumescent strips, no closer, or a door that has been painted so many times it no longer closes into the rebate. After that it is detection coverage, room sizes below the statutory minimum, and amenity ratios.
Yes, and most of our HMO work is occupied. We phase it room by room and floor by floor, and agree with you what we tell the tenants and when.
We will price against their schedule, carry out the works and give you the certificates and photographs. The licence application itself stays with you or your agent, because the council deals with the licence holder.
A straightforward compliance upgrade on an existing HMO is usually two to four weeks. A full conversion involving layout changes, additional bathrooms and building control is more like eight to sixteen. The survey will tell you which one you have.
All 32 London boroughs, with a focus on west and south-west London.
Tell us the property
and we will survey it.
A site visit, an honest recommendation and a fixed written quote. London-wide.
What councils look for in an HMO, and where applications stall.
Licensing is run borough by borough, but applications stall in the same places: fire safety, room sizes and amenity ratios.
Fire safety
Inspectors look at the protected escape route first: rated fire doors that close into the rebate, strips and seals, working closers, and no exposed services through the route. Detection must suit the layout and come with its commissioning certificate.
Room sizes and occupancy
Licensed HMOs have statutory minimum bedroom sizes. A room below the minimum cannot be counted, which changes the numbers on the whole property, so measure before you buy.
Amenity standards
Kitchens, bathrooms and WCs must match the number of occupants, and the ratios differ between boroughs. Meeting them can mean an extra bathroom rather than a new door.
Getting the paperwork together
Most HMOs need an EICR, gas safety, fire alarm and often emergency lighting certificates. We arrange them together so they arrive as a set, with photographs of the works.
Converting a family house into an HMO.
Planning and Article 4 directions
Many London boroughs have Article 4 directions that remove the permitted development right to turn a family house into a small HMO, so planning permission is needed. Larger HMOs for seven or more people need planning permission everywhere. Check this before any building work starts, and we will build to the approved drawings and building control sign off.
Often needed
alongside this.
Areas we cover.
We take HMO conversion work across all 32 London boroughs. Most of our work is in west London, in Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, Fulham, Kensington, Chiswick and White City, and in south west London, in Putney, Wandsworth and Wimbledon. We also work in south east London, in Greenwich, Blackheath and Lewisham.
If your property is outside these areas, call us anyway. We travel across London and will tell you honestly if a job is too far to price properly.