Licensing
What is selective licensing?
Selective licensing is a scheme a local authority may introduce requiring most or all private rented properties in a designated area to be licensed, regardless of whether they are HMOs.
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<img src="https://propertyoptix.co.uk/glossary/selective-licensing/diagram.svg" alt="selective licensing — diagram from PropertyOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://propertyoptix.co.uk/glossary/selective-licensing">What is selective licensing?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://propertyoptix.co.uk">PropertyOptix</a>
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</figure>It is geographic rather than property-type based. Whether a licence is needed depends on where the property is and whether a designation is currently in force covering it.
Designations are time-limited and renewed, introduced and allowed to lapse. A landlord who checked once has checked for that moment, and boundaries can follow ward lines that do not match how anyone thinks about an area.
The consequences of operating unlicensed mirror HMO licensing: prosecution or penalty, exposure to a rent repayment order, and restrictions on possession.
What goes wrong in practice
- Checked at purchase and never rechecked, missing a designation introduced later.
- Boundaries assumed from local knowledge rather than checked against the designation.
- Expiry of a licence missed because the designation was renewed and the licence was not.