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Housing

Renew a HMO licence

By law, you need a HMO licence if you're the landlord of a House of Multiple Occupation (HMO).

HMO licences last for a maximum of five years, although it can be for a shorter period, and the current licence holder must renew their licence if they want to operate after the expiration of the licence period.

Renew your HMO licence online

The current licence holder must renew their licence before their licence expires.

Please contact hmolicensing@york.gov.uk and we'll email details on how to renew your licence, which can be done online, to existing HMO licence holders before their licence expiry date.

To renew your licence, you'll need to include the correct HMO licensing fee and these supporting documents for your application to be valid:

  • gas safety certificate
  • electrical safety certificate
  • energy performance certificate
  • written fire risk assessment
  • portable appliance test certificate (for appliances supplied with the property)
  • plan of the property showing room sizes and numbers of rooms

You must complete your renewal application before your current licence expires to benefit from our reduced licence fee.

Read our HMO guidance notes to help you complete your application.

Assistance with your HMO licence application

Our Healthy and Sustainable Homes team can assist with:

  • making your application
  • basic technical enquires (for example, what we base decisions on or how to object)

Our Team cannot:

  • confirm whether your application will be successful (we can only confirm this after completing necessary checks)
  • advise whether your property has relevant planning permission - you'll need to contact our Planning Team for this

Operating without a HMO licence

It's a criminal offence to operate a HMO without a licence when this is required.

Possible action we could take against unlicensed HMOs include:

  • a formal caution
  • a penalty charge (up to £30,000)
  • prosecution (if found guilty, you could get: a criminal record, unlimited fine, and be ordered to pay court costs and a victim surcharge)
  • Rent Repayment Order (you may have to repay up to 12 months' rental income)
  • other actions in accordance with our HMO Enforcement Policy

Note: You won't be able to use a Notice of Seeking Possession under Section 21 Housing Act 1988 to evict your tenants whilst your property is unlicensed.

As such, we advise you to achieve compliance at the earliest opportunity.

HMO licensing advice

For further information and advice about HMO licensing:

Also see

Healthy and Sustainable Homes Service

West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

Telephone: 01904 552300

Planning Enquiries

DM Business Support, West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

Telephone: 01904 551553