Licensing
What is additional licensing?
Additional licensing is a scheme a local authority may introduce requiring HMOs that fall below the mandatory threshold to be licensed in a designated area.
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<img src="https://propertyoptix.co.uk/glossary/additional-licensing/diagram.svg" alt="additional licensing — diagram from PropertyOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://propertyoptix.co.uk/glossary/additional-licensing">What is additional licensing?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://propertyoptix.co.uk">PropertyOptix</a>
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</figure>It exists because the national threshold leaves smaller HMOs unlicensed, and in areas with concentrations of them a council may judge that inadequate.
Designations are area-based and time-limited, and they are introduced, renewed and allowed to lapse. Checking once is checking for that moment.
It stacks with selective licensing, which covers properties that are not HMOs at all. A portfolio in one borough can need three different licence types.
What goes wrong in practice
- Smaller HMOs assumed unlicensable because they fall below the mandatory threshold.
- Designation boundaries assumed from local knowledge rather than checked.
- Renewal missed because the designation continued and the licence did not.