HMO licensing procedure

When you have submitted a complete to us, we will check that it has been correctly completed and signed and that you have attached all the necessary additional information requested, along with the licence fee payable.

Documentation submission

It is important that you carefully check that you have submitted all necessary documents, as the council may impose an additional fee of £119 to cover our costs if you fail to submit a complete application.

If there are any things you may have missed we will contact you to tell you what these are and ask you to provide them.

We will not proceed with issuing a licence until we have all the necessary information.

What happens after I have submitted my application?

On receipt of your complete application, the council will conduct a number of checks (fit and proper person checks) to ensure that the applicant and any other person involved with running the HMO (e.g. manager) are suitable.

If you have supplied all the necessary information, we will acknowledge this and send you a receipt for the licence fee.

During the application process, the council will consult you and other relevant persons about the proposed licence they intend to grant.

They will allow a minimum of fourteen days for the consultation process.

If, following the consultation, the proposed licence is modified we will let you know and give you seven days to comment further before issuing the licence. 

Once the proposed licence is issued to you, you will be asked to pay the second HMO licence fee.

If you do not respond to the consultation we will assume that you are happy with the proposed licence and, once we have received your second HMO licence fee payment, will then issue a valid license. We may issue the licence with some conditions attached. If we do we will explain clearly what these are and give you a reasonable time to comply with the conditions.

House in multiple occupation inspection

The council will inspect your house in multiple occupation at some point during the licence.

We will try to inspect your property as soon as possible following the issue of the licence, dependent on workload.

You must carefully read the conditions attached to your licence to make sure that your property meets HMO standards.

Houses in multiple occupation register

Under the Housing Act 2004 s232, we are required to publish details of Mandatory Licensed HMOs in the Preston area.

The list is automatically updated as new licences are issued.

The Government intends that by making the owners' contact details available, any issues arising at the property (for example anti-social behaviour) can be quickly addressed to the HMO licence holder as the person in control.