Best HMO software (UK, 2026)

For one or two small HMOs you do not need a dedicated co-living platform. LetCompliance covers it on its own — HMO room-level management, per-room compliance, rent and the whole tenancy in one tool — so you are not stitching a general PM tool to a separate compliance tool. For 5+ HMOs or any co-living building, the deep room-level operations in a dedicated HMO product (COHO) — housemate fit, shared bill allocation, inclusive-rent reconciliation — start paying for themselves and earn their place.

Awaab’s Law currently bites in the social rented sector and is not yet extended to the PRS (the Renters’ Rights Act carries a power to do so, but the regulations have not been made) via the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 implementation programme. The fixed response windows for damp-and-mould reports already represent current best practice and many local authorities will treat them as the de facto standard from 2026 onwards, software that tracks the SLA clock is a sensible hedge.

HMO licences run for up to 5 years and are tied to a specific named operator and address. Renewal applications must be submitted before expiry to avoid an unlicensed-HMO charge (up to £30k civil penalty + Rent Repayment Order). The reminder logic in compliance software needs to fire 90+ days before expiry to leave room for the council process, a generic "30 days before" diary entry is not enough.

Yes, this is the most common HMO-operator stack. COHO handles room-level operations, housemate matching and bill splits; LetCompliance handles compliance scoring, licence tracking, FRA, Awaab’s Law SLA and the Section 8 drafting layer. We export and accept CSVs both ways.

Article 4 directions remove permitted-development rights to convert a property to a small HMO. None of these tools file the planning permission for you, but LetCompliance flags Article 4 areas at the address-tagging stage and reminds you to check planning before converting. COHO and Arthur do not.

Student HMOs live or die on joint-tenancy paperwork, guarantors and per-room rent, not just a room board. COHO leads on room-level operations and housemate fit; LetCompliance handles the tenancy side students need — joint tenancies, guarantor agreements, tenant referencing, per-room rent with automatic arrears, and the Section 8 / Ground 8 route if a room falls behind — alongside HMO licence and fire-safety tracking. For student houses, LetCompliance covers the tenancy end to end on its own. A purpose-built block with heavy housemate matching and inclusive bills is where COHO earns its place.

They are two different jobs. Splitting shared utility bills across housemates and reconciling inclusive rent is COHO’s strength, and the one area LetCompliance does not cover. Billing each room’s rent, tracking who has paid, chasing arrears and evidencing them for a Ground 8 claim is LetCompliance’s job: per-room rent schedules, automatic arrears, optional Direct Debit collection and a court-ready audit trail. If you need both, run them together.