London · 2026 fees
Landlord licence fees London 2026
There is no London licence fee. Each borough sets its own, designates its own areas and reviews its own schedule, and the gap is not small: the same large shared house costs £977 to license in Tower Hamlets and £1,865.34 in Redbridge. Croydon is the one to watch, with selective licensing in fourteen wards and borough-wide additional licensing both starting on 25 September 2026. Every figure below was read off that borough’s own fee page, linked beside it.
| Scheme | Council | Fee | Term | Notes / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandatory HMO | Tower Hamlets | £977Council’s figure | 5 yrs | The cheapest mandatory HMO licence of any borough here, online, for a new licence or a renewal, plus £68.50 for each habitable room. Two things cost more: paying in two parts comes to £1,037, and applying by post is £1,147. Council page |
| Additional HMO | Tower Hamlets | £1,323Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Online, or £1,550.50 by post. Split over two payments it is £1,405.50. Council page |
| Selective licensing | Tower Hamlets | £897Council’s figure | 5 yrs | A new licence online; a renewal is £747 and a postal application £1,034. Council page |
| Selective licensing | Newham | £750Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Part A £400 and Part B £350 for a borough-wide scheme covering a family or up to two unrelated people. A second property onwards is £700, and a home never let before with an EPC of C or above is £400. Membership of a recognised landlord association takes £50 off. Council page |
| Additional HMO | Newham | £1,250Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Three or four people in two or more households: Part A £400 and Part B £850, or £800 for a home never let before with an EPC of C or above. Council page |
| Mandatory HMO | Newham | £1,400Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Up to five lettings, as Part A £450 and Part B £950, then banded upwards: £1,550 for six to nine, £1,700 for ten to fourteen, £2,600 for twenty to twenty-nine, and £750 more for each additional ten lettings above eighty. Council page |
| Selective licensing | Waltham Forest | £895Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Part A £300 and Part B £595, or £770 where a discount applies. A second and later dwelling in the same building is £125 cheaper. Council page |
| Additional HMO | Waltham Forest | £1,200Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Split evenly, £600 on application and £600 on grant, or £1,075 with the multi-dwelling discount. Council page |
| Mandatory HMO | Waltham Forest | £1,650Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Up to eight units, split evenly at £825 and £825. Nine to nineteen units is £2,200 and twenty or more is £5,500, the steepest jump in London. Council page |
| Selective licensing | Croydon | £800Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Brand new: fourteen wards need a licence from 25 September 2026, and you cannot apply before that date. Part A £480 and Part B £320. An EPC of B or above takes £50 off, accreditation £100, and a second flat in the same block £100. A one-year licence is £544. Council page |
| Additional HMO | Croydon | £1,250Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Also from 25 September 2026, borough-wide for smaller HMOs: Part A £750 and Part B £500, with the same EPC and accreditation discounts and a one-year option at £850. A property already licensed as an HMO does not need a selective licence as well. Council page |
| Mandatory HMO | Hackney | £1,400Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Part A £840 with the application and Part B £560 on grant. The discounts come off Part B: £100 for an EPC of B or above, £50 for a C, and £100 for an accredited landlord, with a further £100 off Part A where the property is one of several dwellings in the same building. Council page |
| Additional HMO | Hackney | £1,400Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Charged on the same scale as the mandatory licence, £840 and £560. Council page |
| Selective licensing | Hackney | £925Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Part A £555 and Part B £370, with the same discounts. Council page |
| Selective licensing | Barking & Dagenham | £950Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Part A £650 and Part B £300, for the scheme effective from 6 April 2025. A satisfactory compliance audit is worth £200 off Part B, and £250 if you are also accredited. Council page |
| Additional HMO | Barking & Dagenham | £1,400Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Part A £1,000 and Part B £400. Changing an address, a manager or the maximum occupancy on an existing licence costs nothing. Council page |
| Mandatory HMO | Barking & Dagenham | £1,500Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Up to five habitable rooms, as Part A £1,000 and Part B £500, rising by room band to £1,600, £1,700, £1,800 and £2,000 at twenty rooms or more. Council page |
| Mandatory HMO | Redbridge | £1,865.34Council’s figure | 5 yrs | The dearest in London by a wide margin, and banded by households rather than rooms: £696.14 at the first stage and £1,169.20 at the second for two households, rising to £2,185.95 at five households and £2,728.51 at ten or more. Accreditation is worth £35 off the second stage. Council page |
| Selective licensing | Redbridge | £997.69Council’s figure | 5 yrs | For applications between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027: £371.05 when you apply and £626.64 if it succeeds, less £35 with accreditation. A paper application adds £139.23. Council page |
| Additional HMO | Brent | £1,040Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Also £1,040 for a mandatory licence, plus £25 for each habitable room above the first five, split £540 on application and £500 on grant. Applications received before 2 February 2026 were charged the old £840. Council page |
| Mandatory HMO | Haringey | £1,411.68Council’s figure | 5 yrs | Part A £641.48 and Part B £770.20, plus £50 on each part for every unit above five. An accredited licence holder saves £50 and a compliant EPC another £50, so £1,311.68 with both. Haringey can cut the licence period by up to four years where a landlord applied late or has a history of complaints. Council page |
How to read these London licence fees
Which fee applies depends on the type of licence a property needs. Three regimes operate across England, and the schedule above covers Mandatory HMO, Additional HMO and Selective licensing in London:
- Mandatory HMO licence, required for any house in multiple occupation with five or more people forming two or more households, anywhere in England.
- Additional HMO licence, which a council can extend HMO licensing to smaller shared houses inside a designated area.
- Selective licence, covering most or all privately rented homes (not just HMOs) within a specific designated zone, set in five-yearly cycles.
Fees are set per council, usually run for a five-year term and are commonly charged per property, though some authorities add a per-room element for larger HMOs. Following the Hemming and Gaskin court rulings, many councils now split the cost into a Part A application charge and a Part B grant charge, so the headline figure can be payable in two stages. Early-application and accreditation discounts are widely available and can cut the total noticeably.
Because each authority sets and reviews its own schedule independently, two neighbouring councils can differ by hundreds of pounds for the same property. Budget from the specific council’s current fee page, linked in the table, rather than a city-wide average.
FAQs: landlord licence fees in London
How much does a landlord licence cost in London in 2026?
the council publishes these fees: Tower Hamlets Mandatory HMO £977, Tower Hamlets Additional HMO £1,323, Tower Hamlets Selective licensing £897, and 18 more in the table above. Each covers 5 years and came straight off the council page linked beside each row, checked on 20 September 2026. The table shows how a fee splits between the application and the grant, and which discounts come off. Most councils reprice on 1 April.
Are licence fees per property or per landlord?
Per property. If you own multiple let properties in designated areas, each one typically needs its own licence and fee. Some councils run portfolio discounts for accredited landlords.
What happens if I let without a licence?
Letting a property that requires a selective or HMO licence without one is a criminal offence. Civil penalties reach £40,000 for offences from 1 May 2026, and tenants can apply for a Rent Repayment Order of up to two years’ rent. Ignorance of the scheme is not a defence.
Do licence fees change year to year?
Yes. Most councils reprice on 1 April and a new scheme cycle can move the fee further. The amounts above are the council's published figures as at 20 September 2026; the council link beside each row is always the live position.
Can I claim licence fees as a rental expense?
HMRC generally treats landlord licence fees as a deductible rental business expense for income tax where the licence is required to let the property. If the fee covers more than one tax year you may need to apportion it. Check with your accountant for your circumstances.
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