Licence fees — verified 20 July 2026

Property licence fees by council: what a licence really costs in 2026

Licensing the same property can cost 4× more depending on the council. We normalised every fee to a like-for-like property size and verified each figure against the council's own schedule — re-checked quarterly.

£755

median selective licence (single household)

£1,200

median additional HMO (3-person)

£1,138

median mandatory HMO (5-person)

4×

same 5-person HMO: £698 in Tamworth vs £2,750 in Lambeth

Check what your property needs →How we verify fees

The data

Licence fees by council

Every fee below is the normalised cost for each scheme's minimum qualifying property, so councils compare directly. Switch schemes to see selective, additional and mandatory HMO fees. A council appears here only once we've verified its figure like-for-like — councils we can't yet verify that way are listed further down.

Council	Fee — single household	Structure	Verified	Source
Ashfield	£350	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Oldham	£582	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
County Durham	£585	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Doncaster	£600	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Wirral	£605	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Brent	£640	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Lewisham	£640	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Stockton-on-Tees	£653	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
North Yorkshire	£695	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Birmingham	£700	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Charnwood	£700	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Liverpool	£704	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Haringey	£706	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Burnley	£750	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Newham	£750	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Hammersmith and Fulham	£755	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Blackpool	£772	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Mansfield	£800	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Southend-on-Sea	£830	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Gateshead	£850	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Wandsworth	£885	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Waltham Forest	£895	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Greenwich	£906	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Peterborough	£908	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Hackney	£925	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Southwark	£945	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
North Lincolnshire	£955	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Rotherham	£975	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Redbridge	£998	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Lambeth	£1,025	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Leeds	£1,100	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page

Showing 11 of 31 councilsView all councils →

Council	Fee — 3-person HMO	Structure	Verified	Source
Charnwood	£700	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Birmingham	£755	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Hammersmith and Fulham	£755	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Wrexham	£898	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Sutton	£958	per unit	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Gateshead	£976	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Sandwell	£1,021	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Bedford	£1,047	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Peterborough	£1,100	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Rochdale	£1,170	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Waltham Forest	£1,200	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Newham	£1,250	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Newport	£1,255	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Hackney	£1,400	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Kensington and Chelsea	£1,493	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Wandsworth	£1,507	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Telford and Wrekin	£1,522	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Brent	£1,540	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Lambeth	£1,650	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Bristol	£1,861	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Denbighshire	£1,861	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page

Showing 11 of 21 councilsView all councils →

Council	Fee — 5-person HMO	Structure	Verified	Source
Ceredigion	£334	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Tamworth	£698	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Charnwood	£700	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Oldham	£834	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Mansfield	£850	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
North East Lincolnshire	£850	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Oxford	£858	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Wirral	£875	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Woking	£880	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Denbighshire	£890	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Wrexham	£898	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Leicester	£900	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Rotherham	£929	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Burnley	£961	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Leeds	£975	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Oadby and Wigston	£1,000	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Doncaster	£1,008	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Sandwell	£1,021	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Ashfield	£1,031	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
North Lincolnshire	£1,063	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Gateshead	£1,100	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Peterborough	£1,100	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Blackpool	£1,176	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Bedford	£1,207	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Stockton-on-Tees	£1,250	per unit	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Newport	£1,255	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Portsmouth	£1,257	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Rochdale	£1,276	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Southend-on-Sea	£1,300	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Liverpool	£1,328	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Croydon	£1,475	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Kensington and Chelsea	£1,493	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Ealing	£1,500	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Telford and Wrekin	£1,522	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Brent	£1,540	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Westminster	£1,540	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Sutton	£1,597	per unit	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Hounslow	£1,608	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Waltham Forest	£1,650	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Hammersmith and Fulham	£1,656	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Wandsworth	£1,827	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Redbridge	£1,865	banded	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Bristol	£1,886	per property	20 Jul 2026	council fee page
Lambeth	£2,750	per room	20 Jul 2026	council fee page

Showing 11 of 44 councilsView all councils →

Comparison model

How we make fees comparable

Councils charge in three different ways. We restate each one at the scheme's minimum qualifying property so a single figure means the same thing everywhere.

Flat per-property

Most councils charge one fee per licence regardless of size — e.g. Newham £750, so no restatement is needed.

Per habitable room

A minority charge per room. Lambeth £550/room → a minimum 5-person HMO = £2,750; Croydon £295/room → £1,475.

Size-banded

The fee rises with size — e.g. Telford £1,522 up to 5 occupants, rising to £1,874 above that.

Our assumption: at minimum property size, persons ≈ habitable rooms ≈ bedrooms. One-off components payable on licence issue (e.g. Oldham's £380 compliance fee) are shown in the notes, not the headline figure.

Methodology

Every figure verified at source

Council-verified

Each fee checked against the council's own published schedule, never third-party aggregators.

Dated

Every figure carries the date we verified it, so you always know how current it is.

Normalised

Banded and per-room fees are restated at each scheme's minimum qualifying property, so every council is compared like-for-like.

Re-checked quarterly

Automated re-verification against all 91 council fee pages — next run 1 October 2026.

Fees change; always confirm with the council before applying.

Councils without a verified headline fee

These councils publish fees as PDFs, on request, or in structures we can't yet restate like-for-like — so rather than show a number we're not sure of, we link you straight to the council's own fee page to confirm the current figure. No entry here doesn't mean no fee applies.

View all 38 councils →

Licence fee FAQs

How much does a selective licence cost?

Across the 31 councils we track, a selective licence for a single-household property ranges from £350 (Ashfield) to £1,100 (Leeds), with a median of £755. Most councils charge a single flat fee per property, often split into an application part and a licence-issue part.

Why do HMO licence fees vary so much?

Councils set their own fees and structure them differently — some charge a flat fee, others charge per habitable room or band the fee by size. A minimum 5-person HMO costs £698 in Tamworth but £2,750 in Lambeth, which charges £550 per room. Normalising to the same property size is the only way to compare fairly.

Are licence fees per property or per room?

Both exist. Most councils charge one fee per licence regardless of size. A minority — including Lambeth and Croydon — charge per habitable room, and some band the fee by number of bedrooms or households. Our tables restate every fee at the scheme's minimum qualifying property so they compare like-for-like.

Can I get a discount on my licence fee?

Some councils offer reduced fees for accredited landlords, early applications, or portfolio holders, and most split the fee into an application part and a licence-issue part. Discounts are set locally — check the council's fee page, linked in each table row.

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