Islington
Islington Property Licence Checker
Islington runs three licensing schemes at once. The question that matters is not whether licensing exists in Islington, it is which of the three reaches one specific property.
Kamma checks the property, not the postcode.
Why postcode checkers get Islington wrong
Ward boundaries and postcode boundaries are different geographies. They were drawn for different purposes and they cut through each other.
Selective licensing in Islington is designated by ward. A single postcode sector can contain addresses in a designated ward and addresses outside it, so a postcode-level answer is right for some properties in that postcode and wrong for others. It cannot tell you which.
The council’s designation is recorded against wards and the census areas inside them, which is why an address-level check is the only one that resolves cleanly. The ward list is on the Islington selective licensing wards page.
The three schemes, and which applies
| Scheme | Where | Which properties |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory HMO | Borough-wide, since 2006 | Five or more people from two or more households |
| Additional HMO | Borough-wide, 1 February 2026 to 31 January 2031 | Three or four people from two or more households |
| Selective | 10 of the 17 wards | One or two people, a single family, or a household |
The schemes do not overlap: a property licensed under one does not need another. Occupancy decides which scheme, and geography decides whether the selective scheme reaches it.
What falls outside all three is on the Islington licensing exemptions page.
What a UPRN is, and why we use one
A UPRN is the Unique Property Reference Number, a permanent identifier assigned to every addressable location in Great Britain by Ordnance Survey. Flat 2 and Flat 3 in the same building share a postcode and have different UPRNs.
Because a UPRN identifies one property rather than a delivery area, it can be placed inside or outside a designation boundary without ambiguity. That is the difference between an answer about your street and an answer about your property.
If the property needs a licence: the standards it must meet
These are the national conditions attached to an HMO licence, set by regulations rather than by Islington.
Selective licensing covers single households, so the HMO room-size standards below do not attach to a selective licence. They matter in Islington because mandatory and additional HMO licensing both apply borough-wide, so a landlord letting a shared house meets them regardless of which ward it is in.
| Requirement | Standard |
|---|---|
| Room used as sleeping accommodation by one person over 10 | At least 6.51 m² |
| Room used as sleeping accommodation by two persons over 10 | At least 10.22 m² |
| Electrical installation condition report | Less than 5 years old |
| Gas safety certificate | Less than 12 months old |
| Fire doors, alarms and emergency lighting | As required by the council’s fire safety assessment |
The room-size minimums are set by the Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Mandatory Conditions of Licences) (England) Regulations 2018 and apply to HMO licences nationally. The electrical and gas certificate periods are the general private-rented requirements. Islington attaches its own conditions to a licence in addition to these, and we do not restate them here because the council publishes the current set with the application.
What we cannot tell you yet
Four questions we are asked and cannot answer from a published source. We would rather say so than guess.
- Whether applications open before the scheme commences. Islington has not published a date from which it will accept selective licence applications for the new wards.
- How long an Islington application takes. The council states that processing times vary with workload and publishes no target.
- The full licence conditions. These are issued with the licence and the council has not published a consolidated set for the expanded scheme.
- What happens to a licence already held under the 2024 designation. Landlords in Finsbury Park, Hillrise and Tollington hold licences running to 2029-05-19, and the council has not published how those interact with the expanded designation.
Kamma monitors every licensing designation in Great Britain daily. These answers land on this page when the council publishes them.
For letting agents
A portfolio check runs every managed property against every scheme in every borough you let in, not only Islington, and keeps checking as designations change. Agents can be held jointly liable for an unlicensed property, so the exposure is per property rather than per landlord.
Check a managed portfolio against every scheme in every borough you let in.
What happens next in Islington
21 August 2026
Designation made
7 September 2026
Applications open
23 November 2026
Scheme takes effect
Frequently asked questions
Not reliably. Ward boundaries cut through postcode sectors, so one postcode can contain properties inside and outside a designated ward. An address-level check resolves it; a postcode-level one cannot.
Occupancy decides. Five or more people from two or more households is mandatory HMO licensing; three or four is additional HMO licensing, borough-wide; one or two people, a single family or a household is selective licensing, in the 10 designated wards.
No. The schemes do not overlap. A property licensed as an HMO does not also need a selective licence.
Islington has not published a date from which it will accept applications for the new wards. We will update this page when it does.
The council publishes no target processing time and states that it varies with workload.
Applications open on 7 September 2026 and the scheme takes effect on 23 November 2026.
