Brighton & Hove City Council (Central Brighton) landlord licensing 2026

In force here

Licensing in Brighton & Hove City Council (Central Brighton)

Schemes are designated for a fixed period and are redesignated, widened or dropped. Treat this as the shape of the local regime and confirm the current designation on the council’s own licensing page before you let.

Selective licensing covers four wards, Kemptown, Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, Queens Park, and Whitehawk and Marina, from 2 September 2024 to 1 September 2029. A home let there to one or two people or to a family needs a licence, and so does a single-storey flat or bungalow with three or four sharers that falls outside the HMO schemes
Additional HMO licensing covers HMOs of two or more storeys with three or four unrelated occupiers, and runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029
A licence granted under that scheme runs from the date of your application until the scheme ends, rather than for a fixed five years from grant
Mandatory HMO licensing applies to any property with five or more unrelated occupiers sharing a kitchen, bathroom or toilet
Planning permission comes first: if a change of use needs permission you must apply for that before the licence, and holding a licence makes no difference to the planning decision

Licence fees

What a licence costs in Brighton & Hove

Brighton & Hove’s own published figures, read from its fee pages and reviewed on 20 September 2026. Councils reprice their fees, so the council page linked on each row is the live figure.

Mandatory HMO
£9065-year licence
Five sharers on one tenancy, rising with the house: £927 for six to eight, £950 for nine to eleven and £972 for twelve to fourteen. Re-licensing is cheaper, from £740. A bedsit HMO, where each room has its own tenancy, is charged on a separate scale from £1,137. Three discounts of £75 each, for accreditation with ihowz, the NRLA or safeagent, for an EPC of C or above, and for a registered charity, but only two can be used, so £150 is the most that comes off. Apply more than 28 days late and the fee is £1,027 with no discount at all.
The council’s fee page
Additional HMO
£8835-year licence
Three or four sharers on one tenancy, or £1,127 where each has a separate tenancy. Late applications are £995 and £1,193. The scheme runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029 and a licence lasts from the date of the application until it ends.
The council’s fee page
Selective licensing
£7405-year licence
Kemptown, Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, Queens Park, and Whitehawk and Marina, for a home let to one or two occupiers or to a family, and for single-storey flats and bungalows with three or four sharers that fall outside the HMO schemes. The scheme runs from 2 September 2024 to 1 September 2029 and a licence lasts until it ends, so applying later buys less time for the same money. A late application is £840.
The council’s fee page

The Brighton & Hove licence fees page explains which licence a property needs and how each fee is paid.

Once Brighton & Hove grants the licence, keep it with the let.

LetCompliance holds it on the property beside the tenancy and the rent: the type, the council’s reference, the dates and how many people it allows. It emails you 90, 30 and 7 days before the licence runs out, and warns you if a tenant moving in would put more people in the property than the licence permits.

How licences are tracked Start with a 3-day trial, no cardPlans from £7.99 a month

Wards and postcodes

What each postcode here covers, ward by ward

The three outward codes on this guide touch 25 electoral wards between them. Two of them cross a council boundary (BN1 into Lewes and Mid Sussex; BN2 into Lewes), and nothing Brighton & Hove designates applies on the far side of it. Wards from the ONS postcode directory, checked 18 September 2026. Designations follow ward and sometimes street boundaries, so knowing the ward narrows it down; the council’s own designation is the answer for the address.

Brighton & Hove’s selective licensing designation, in force from 2 September 2024 to 1 September 2029, names four wards. All four are among the wards this guide’s postcodes touch: Kemptown, Moulsecoomb & Bevendean, Queen’s Park and Whitehawk & Marina. The council’s list

BN1Central Brighton, Preston Park, Hollingdean and Fiveways, Goldsmid
Wards it touches: Brunswick & Adelaide, Coldean & Stanmer, Ditchling & Westmeston, Downland Villages, Goldsmid, Hangleton & Knoll, Hollingdean & Fiveways, Kemptown, Kingston, Patcham & Hollingbury, Preston Park, Regency, Round Hill, Westdene & Hove Park and West Hill & North Laine.
Named in the selective designation: Kemptown.
Part of BN1 lies in Lewes and Mid Sussex, where Brighton & Hove’s schemes do not apply.
BN2Kemptown, Hanover and Elm Grove, Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, Queen’s Park
Wards it touches: Coldean & Stanmer, East Saltdean & Telscombe Cliffs, Hanover & Elm Grove, Kemptown, Moulsecoomb & Bevendean, Queen’s Park, Rottingdean & West Saltdean, Round Hill, West Hill & North Laine, Whitehawk & Marina and Woodingdean.
Named in the selective designation: Kemptown, Moulsecoomb & Bevendean, Queen’s Park and Whitehawk & Marina.
Part of BN2 lies in Lewes, where Brighton & Hove’s schemes do not apply.
BN3Central Hove, Westbourne and Poets’ Corner, Goldsmid, Wish, Hangleton and Knoll
Wards it touches: Brunswick & Adelaide, Central Hove, Goldsmid, Hangleton & Knoll, Regency, Westbourne & Poets’ Corner, Westdene & Hove Park and Wish.
None of these wards is in the selective designation.

Local rents

What lets for in Brighton and Hove

Office for National Statistics, August 2026 (released 16 September 2026): the average private rent on new and existing tenancies. For Brighton and Hove as a whole: ONS publishes nothing for a single ward. A council average is not the market rent of a particular home.

Average rent: £1,808per month, all sizes
1-bed / 2-bed: £1,189 · £1,518per month
3-bed: £1,797per month
Change in a year: -1.2%to August 2026

For Brighton and Hove as a whole, the average private rent of £1,808 a month is £382 more than the South East average of £1,426, and the 4th highest of the 64 councils in the South East that ONS publishes. Over the year to August 2026 it fell 1.2%, against a rise of 3.0% across the South East.

Every council in England is on the UK rent statistics page, with the national and regional averages.

Local figures

Renting in Brighton and Hove: the official numbers

Counted from official sources on 6 October 2026. These are for Brighton and Hove as a whole: none are published for a single ward.

Section 21 claims: 60accelerated possession claims, April to June 2026, up 22% on a year earlier (49)
Rent repayment orders: 0made in 1 published decisions since January 2025
Rent challenges: 11rent increases decided by the tribunal since January 2025, 5 of them since 1 May 2026

Sources: ONS Price Index of Private Rents (released 16 September 2026); Ministry of Justice possession statistics, April to June 2026, by the council of the defendant’s address; residential property tribunal decisions published on GOV.UK, by the council in the case reference. How each was counted: Section 21 claims, rent repayment orders, rent challenges and rents by council.

PRS Database

When landlords in Central Brighton must register

Central Brighton is in the South East region. Registration becomes required there on 15 March 2027, and the deadline is 14 June 2027. Every let home in England goes on the new Private Rented Sector Database, and the date is set by where the property is, not where you live. Everything for the South East.

Opens to everyone
15 December 2026
Any property can be registered early, wherever it is.
Required in South East
15 March 2027
The three-month window to register starts.
Deadline
14 June 2027
After this date the council can take enforcement action.

The fee is £65 a year for each property, pro-rated during the rollout. Miss the deadline and the council can impose a penalty of up to £7,000. While a let that should be registered is not, a court cannot make a possession order for it, except on the antisocial behaviour Grounds 7A and 14 (Renters’ Rights Act 2025, section 90). Dates from the GOV.UK Housing Hub, checked 23 September 2026.

Get ready in LetCompliance

Seventeen answers a property. Have them on one page before 15 March 2027.

The register asks the same 17 things about every home you let, from the number of households to copies of the gas safety record, the EICR and the EPC. LetCompliance builds a register pack for each property from the records you keep in it: what is ready, what is missing, and the certificate files to upload. Registering becomes copying from one page.

A register pack for every property
All 17 items, most of them filled in from the tenancy, rent, licence and certificate records you already keep.
The gaps, said plainly
Each gap links to the page where you fill it in, so they are closed weeks ahead, not on the deadline.
Reminders on the South East dates
An email the day registration becomes required, then 30 and 7 days before 14 Jun 2027, for every property not yet marked registered.

Get your register pack Check your readiness first

Included on every plan.

Check your address

Three steps before you let the property

Designations are drawn by ward and sometimes by street, so the only answer that counts is the one for your address.

Check the address on the council’s own licensing pages
It is the only source that is definitive for this borough, and it is the one the council will hold you to.
Brighton & Hove City Council (Central Brighton) licensing
Check the property against the national thresholds
Mandatory HMO licensing is national, not local: five or more occupants forming two or more households need a licence wherever the property is, with no local scheme required.
Free postcode licensing checker
Get the evidence together before you apply
Most applications ask for the same documents you already owe the tenant: the gas safety record, the EICR, the EPC, and the fire detection and escape arrangements for an HMO. The council’s list is the one that counts, but nothing on it will be a surprise if those are current.

National duties

The duties that apply here whatever the council does

A licence sits on top of these, it does not replace them. Renewal cycles and maximum penalties are the same in every England council area.

Duty	Renewal	Maximum penalty
Gas SafetyGas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998	Every 12 months	Unlimited fine + up to 2 years in prison
EICRElectrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020	Every 5 years	£40,000 per property
EPCEnergy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015	Every 10 years / on new tenancy	£5,000 per property
DepositHousing Act 2004, as amended by the Localism Act 2011	30 days from receipt	1-3× deposit as damages
Right to RentImmigration Act 2014, amended by Immigration Act 2016	Before tenancy starts	Up to £20,000 per occupant
Section 8Housing Act 1988, s.8 (as amended by Renters’ Rights Act 2025)	When seeking possession	Possession refused if compliance missing
RRA 2025Renters' Rights Act 2025 (Royal Assent 27 Oct 2025; principal commencement 1 May 2026)	Phase-in from 1 May 2026	£7,000 → £40,000 (serious/repeat) + unlimited criminal

Each row links to the full duty: what it obliges you to do, what happens when it is missed and the practical way to stay on top of it. Read the national guide.

If you get it wrong

What letting without a licence costs

These are statutory, not local. A council that has designated a scheme can use all three, and a tenant can bring the second one without the council being involved at all.

Civil penalty: Up to £40,000Imposed by the council itself, without a prosecution. Serious or repeated breaches sit at the top of the range.
Rent Repayment Order: Up to 2 years’ rentThe tenant, or the council, applies to the First-tier Tribunal to have rent paid back. It is separate from the penalty above, not instead of it.
Prosecution: Unlimited fineLetting an unlicensed HMO, or breaching a licence condition, is a criminal offence and can be prosecuted rather than penalised.

FAQs

Brighton & Hove City Council (Central Brighton): the questions landlords ask

When does Brighton’s additional HMO licensing scheme end?

It runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029. A licence issued under it runs from the date of your application until the scheme ends, so a licence taken out late in the scheme is shorter, not cheaper by the year.

Do I need planning permission as well as a licence in Brighton?

Possibly. If you are changing the use of a property to an HMO you should check whether planning permission is needed and apply for it before the licence. If permission is refused, an HMO licence does not help.

When do landlords in Central Brighton have to register on the PRS Database?

Central Brighton is in the South East region. Registration becomes required there on 15 March 2027, and the deadline is 14 June 2027. Any property can be registered earlier, from 15 December 2026. The fee is £65 a year for each property, and the date follows where the property is, not where the landlord lives. While a let that should be registered is not, a court cannot make a possession order for it, except on the antisocial behaviour grounds.

Reviewed by Erdem Volkan, last checked 15 October 2026. General information about the rules in this area, not advice on a specific property or dispute.

Run a let through it

Every Central Brighton let from one login

LetCompliance is landlord software that runs the advert, the tenancy, rent by Direct Debit with no commission and the repairs, and keeps the South East register deadline, licence renewals, the gas and electrical certificates, the deposit clock and the notices on the same property. Plans from £7.99 a month, with a 3-day trial and no card.

Get started, from £7.99 a month See everything it does