HMO Room Sizes in England 2026: 6.51 m², 10.22 m² and Council Standards

In a licensed HMO in England, a room slept in by one person over 10 must have at least 6.51 m² of floor. A room slept in by two people over 10 needs at least 10.22 m², and a room for one child under 10 at least 4.64 m². A room under 4.64 m² cannot be a bedroom for anyone, and floor under a ceiling lower than 1.5 m does not count.

Those are national minimums, written into HMO licences granted since 1 October 2018. Many councils set larger sizes of their own, and the figure that decides how many people your licence allows is often the council's. This guide sets out the law as it reads, how a room is measured, three councils' own standards read on 25 October 2026, and what happens when a room falls short.

The national minimums, as the Act sets them

Paragraph 1A of Schedule 4 to the Housing Act 2004 lists conditions that an HMO licence in England must include. It was inserted by the Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (Mandatory Conditions of Licences) (England) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/616) and has applied since 1 October 2018. As it reads on legislation.gov.uk on 25 October 2026:

The licence holder must also tell the council about any room in the house under 4.64 m² (paragraph 1A(6)). The first condition, in the Act's own words:

to ensure that the floor area of any room in the HMO used as sleeping accommodation by one person aged over 10 years is not less than 6.51 square metres

Four details in the same paragraph settle most real cases:

• Three or more people. The Act sets no size for them. Instead the licence states the most people over 10, and under 10, who may sleep in each room (paragraph 1A(3)).
• Ages. The Act says "over 10" and "under 10". Council guides often write "10 or over", so for a child who is exactly 10, ask the council how it reads its own licence.
• What counts as a bedroom. A room is sleeping accommodation if it is "normally used as a bedroom, whether or not it is also used for other purposes" (paragraph 1A(8)). A study with a bed in it is a bedroom.
• Visitors. A friend who stays the odd night is not counted (paragraph 1A(7)). A friend who moves in for good is, and GOV.UK's guidance to councils expects the landlord to put that right.

Which HMOs the sizes apply to

The conditions go into licences under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004, which covers both kinds of HMO licence:

• Mandatory licensing, broadly an HMO of five or more people in two or more households (the prescribed description, section 55(2)(a))
• Additional licensing, where the council has designated an area to license smaller HMOs as well (section 55(2)(b))

They do not go into a selective licence, which is granted under Part 3 of the Act. They apply in England only: paragraph 1A opens with "Where the HMO is in England". Wales and Scotland have their own rules.

There is one exception. The sizes do not apply to an HMO managed by a charity registered under the Charities Act 2011 that is a night shelter, or temporary accommodation for people suffering or recovering from drug or alcohol abuse or a mental disorder (paragraph 1A(10)).

A licence granted before 1 October 2018 did not carry them (regulation 1(2) of SI 2018/616). A licence lasts at most five years from the day it is granted or comes into force (section 68(4)), so a licence granted before October 2018 will in practice have ended by now, and its renewal carries the conditions.

An HMO that needs no licence has no licence conditions, so neither the national figures nor a council's space standard bind it as conditions. The council still has two ways to act on crowding there:

• An overcrowding notice. For an HMO that does not need a Part 2 licence and is not under a management order, the council can serve one if, having regard to the rooms available, it considers too many people live there or are likely to (section 139).
• The HHSRS. Crowding and space, "a lack of adequate space for living and sleeping", is one of the hazards the council scores in any home (see the HHSRS hazards).

Nottingham's space guide says landlords of non-licensable HMOs "may also wish to follow the conditions as good management practice". To see whether a house needs a licence at all, the HMO licence checker works through mandatory, additional and selective schemes.

Measuring a room: the 1.5 metre rule

Paragraph 1A(9) leaves out "any part of the floor area of a room in relation to which the height of the ceiling is less than 1.5 metres". GOV.UK's guidance to councils describes the figure as wall to wall floor area where the ceiling is above 1.5 m; the Act's own test leaves out only floor under a ceiling lower than 1.5 m, so floor under a ceiling of exactly 1.5 m counts. The guidance adds that shared space elsewhere in the house cannot make up for a bedroom below the minimum (sections 3.3 and 3.4).

A worked example, for a loft bedroom:

So the room is a single, whatever the sales particulars call it.

Councils add measuring rules of their own. Nottingham leaves out chimney breasts, lobbies, en suites, bay windows and other significant obstructions, and in a small room may leave out the space a door swings through. Sandwell counts floor to ceiling fitted wardrobes but not chimney breasts, bulkheads or en suites. Milton Keynes leaves out an en suite. Measure the way your council measures.

An attic room in the Supreme Court

Nottingham City Council v Parr, a 2018 Supreme Court case ([2018] UKSC 51), turned on rooms like this one. At 44 Rothesay Avenue the front attic had 9.75 m² of floor, but only 5.89 m² under a ceiling of 1.53 m or more, the height Nottingham measured to at the time. The licences came before the national sizes existed. The court upheld conditions letting the attic rooms only to full-time students sharing the house, because generous shared living space could make up for a bedroom below the council's own 8 m² guide.

The court was clear that this "does not permit the application of lower standards", and it noted that the 2018 Regulations had since made 6.51 m² a licence condition (paragraphs 26 and 28). Today the first question for a room like that is whether the floor under a ceiling of 1.5 m or more reaches 6.51 m². If it does not, no condition about who lives there makes it a bedroom for anyone over 10.

Council standards: three councils, read on 25 October 2026

The national figures are a floor. GOV.UK's guidance says they are "not intended to be the optimal room size", and that councils may require higher standards in licence conditions but must not set lower ones (section 3.4). Many do, and the higher figure usually turns on whether the house has a shared living room. Three councils' own documents, read on 25 October 2026:

Nottingham also sets 17 m² for three people and 22 m² for four, where there is dining space elsewhere.

Put the loft room from the example through them. At 9.3 m² it clears Nottingham's 8 m² where the house has dining space, but not its 10 m² where there is no lounge or dining space. It clears Sandwell's 6.51 m² only if the house has a separate living room, and it clears Milton Keynes's 8 m². None of the three would take two people over 10 in it.

Floor area is not the only test. Sandwell also asks for a floor to ceiling height of at least 2.3 m over 75% of the room, and Milton Keynes for a floor to ceiling height of at least 2.13 m in habitable rooms. Check a loft room against those too, and ask the council how it applies them under a sloping ceiling.

Some councils also say who may share. Nottingham will not accept strangers sharing a bedroom. Milton Keynes says people over 10 must not share with someone of the opposite sex unless they live together as a couple or are close relatives.

Your own council's standard sits on its HMO licensing pages, usually called an amenity standard or a space standard. The licence fees by council guide links to each council's own page.

Babies and young children

GOV.UK's guidance expects councils not to count a baby under one when working out room sizes, where the licence holder is reasonably satisfied of the baby's age (section 3.5). Councils differ: Milton Keynes counts children of all ages, babies under one included. A tenant having a baby is also the guidance's own example of a breach the landlord did not knowingly permit (section 3.7), which brings in the time to put it right, below.

If a room is too small

On the national minimums alone, the measured floor decides what the room can be:

Your licence can be stricter than this table. It states the most people over 10, and under 10, who may sleep in each room (paragraph 1A(3)). The Act sets no size for two children under 10 sharing, or for an adult sharing with a child, so that number in the licence decides those rooms. The licence can also carry the council's higher space standard as a condition (GOV.UK guidance, section 3.4).

A room that cannot be a bedroom can still be a study without a bed, a store or a utility room.

Breaching a licence condition is an offence under section 72(3) of the Housing Act 2004, and knowingly letting more people live in the house than the licence allows is an offence under section 72(2). Instead of prosecuting, the council can impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 for conduct from 1 May 2026 (section 249A(4), as amended by SI 2026/319; conduct before that day keeps the old £30,000 maximum). GOV.UK's guidance notes that a conviction carries an unlimited fine (section 3.6). A reasonable excuse is a defence (section 72(5)).

Two rules give time to put a breach right:

1. 1A breach you did not knowingly permit. Where the council tells the licence holder of a breach of the size or occupancy conditions that they did not knowingly permit, the licence requires it to be put right within the period in the notice, no more than 18 months (paragraph 1A(4) and (5)).
2. 2The first licence since 1 October 2018. When a council grants a house its first licence since that date, as happens when a new additional licensing scheme brings in a house that has held no licence since then, and finds the house does not meet the size or occupancy conditions, it must say so and give up to 18 months to comply. Until then it cannot revoke the licence, prosecute under section 72(3) or impose a penalty for those conditions (paragraph 1B). This does not apply where the licence holder was convicted under section 72(2) or (3) for that house before the licence was granted.

Before you buy or convert

1. 1Get the council's space standard before you offer. The national figures are the floor, not the target.
2. 2Measure each bedroom wall to wall at floor level, in metres to two decimal places.
3. 3Mark where any ceiling drops below 1.5 m and take that floor out.
4. 4Take out what your council leaves out: en suites, chimney breasts, bulkheads, bay windows.
5. 5Check whether the council's lower figure needs a shared living room, and whether the house has one.
6. 6Count the rooms that pass for one person and for two. That count, not the bedrooms in the particulars, is what the licence will allow.

A five-bedroom house with one room at 6.2 m² is a four-bedroom HMO for adults, so work the yield on four rents. Planning comes next: see HMO conversions and Article 4 directions. For licensing as a whole, fire safety and the management regulations, see the HMO compliance guide.

Keeping room sizes on the record

In LetCompliance an HMO is one property with its rooms inside it, and each room has its own tenancy, rent, arrears and floor area. Enter the measured area and the room is checked against the national minimums: under 6.51 m² it is flagged, under 10.22 m² with two tenants recorded it is flagged, and under 4.64 m² it is flagged as not a bedroom. Where a mandatory or additional HMO licence is on file, the flag says it is a condition of that licence.

Your council's own higher standard is not checked, so note it on the property when you record the licence, whose expiry date then gets reminders before renewal. Each room's rent runs on its own day, weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly or monthly, and the whole house sits beside your other lets in one account. More on running an HMO room by room.

Run the HMO room by room. Rooms, floor areas, tenancies, rent and the licence date in one place. Set up your HMO