What software do HMO landlords and letting agents need for licensing?

GOV.UK describes a house in multiple occupation as a home let to at least 3 tenants forming more than one household who share a toilet, bathroom or kitchen. A household is one person, or members of the same family living together.

There are three kinds of licence in England:

• Mandatory licensing: any HMO occupied by 5 or more people in 2 or more households. Since 1 October 2018 the number of storeys does not matter
• Additional licensing: a council can designate all or part of its area so that other HMOs need a licence too, after consulting locally
• Selective licensing: a council can designate an area where privately rented homes need a licence, which can catch a smaller HMO

A licence covers one HMO, cannot be transferred, and lasts no more than five years. It sets the maximum number of people and households who may live there. A managing agent can apply for the licence on the landlord's behalf, and the council must be satisfied that the licence holder and the manager are fit and proper.

Licensing touches the property, every room and every tenancy, so the software should hold it in one place:

• The licence: its type, the council, the licence holder, the number and dates, the maximum people and households, and reminders well before it runs out
• Rooms: each room's floor area against the minimum sizes in Part 2 licences: 6.51 m² for one person over 10, 10.22 m² for two people over 10 and 4.64 m² for a child under 10, with no one sleeping in a room under 4.64 m² and floor under a ceiling lower than 1.5 m not counted
• Occupancy: a warning or refusal before a let takes a room or the house over its limit
• Licence conditions: the conditions Schedule 4 of the Housing Act 2004 puts in every licence, such as the annual gas safety certificate, safe electrics and appliances, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and a written statement of terms for each occupier
• Fire safety: the fire risk assessment of the common parts, alarm servicing, emergency lighting and fire doors, plus the routine checks between them
• Management duties: the manager's name, address and phone number displayed in the house, as the Management of HMOs (England) Regulations 2006 require
• Planning: whether the house is in use class C4 or sui generis, and whether an article 4 direction applies

Running an HMO that needs a licence without one is an offence by the person managing or in control of it and the landlord. On conviction the fine is unlimited. Since 1 May 2026 a council can instead impose a civil penalty of up to £40,000 per offence, and the First-tier Tribunal can make a rent repayment order covering up to two years. Older GOV.UK guidance from 2019 still gives £30,000 as the maximum penalty; that figure is out of date.

An application that has been made, or a temporary exemption notice from the council, is a defence while it is in force. So the software should treat a needed licence that is missing or expired as overdue, keep the property off the portals until it is sorted, and show an application or notice as the reason it is still allowed.

Our live lettings demo at lettings-demo.varsuite.co.uk includes three sample HMOs: a licensed six bed student house in Burnley with its licence due for renewal, a small HMO in Blackburn under a fictional additional licensing scheme where a box room under 4.64 m² cannot be let as a bedroom, and a seven bed house in Accrington that needs a mandatory licence and has none, so it is kept off the portals. An HMOs page lists every HMO with its licence and occupancy, with a board of rooms to let.

The weekly fire alarm test and other checks are covered in how to log weekly fire alarm tests in an HMO, and the full feature list is on our letting agent software page. Check the rules for a particular property with its council, since licensing schemes differ from area to area. This is not legal advice.