If you let a property in Brighton & Hove to three or more unrelated people sharing a kitchen or bathroom, you almost certainly need an HMO licence. Which one depends on how many people live there, and getting it wrong can mean a civil penalty of up to £40,000.
HMO rules confuse a lot of landlords because there isn’t one licence, there are two, and Brighton & Hove runs them alongside its separate selective licensing scheme. Here’s what actually applies, what it costs, and what standards the property needs to meet.
Does your property count as an HMO?
A property is a House in Multiple Occupation if it’s rented to people who aren’t from one household and who share facilities like a kitchen, bathroom, or toilet. A group of friends or colleagues sharing a house counts. A couple and their children renting together does not — that’s a single household, whatever the headcount.
Once you’ve established it’s an HMO, which licence you need comes down to numbers:
| Occupants | Licence needed | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| 3–4 people, more than one household | Additional HMO licence | City-wide in Brighton & Hove |
| 5 or more people, more than one household | Mandatory HMO licence | Nationwide, in force since 2006 |
The point: in most UK cities, a small house-share of three or four people needs no licence at all. In Brighton & Hove it does. The additional scheme is city-wide, so there’s no ward to check — if the numbers fit, the licence is required wherever the property is.
The two schemes, and how they differ from selective licensing
Mandatory HMO licensing is set by national law, not the council, and applies anywhere in England to a property let to five or more people forming two or more households who share facilities. This has applied since 2006 and isn’t going anywhere.
Additional HMO licensing is a local scheme Brighton & Hove chose to run, covering the gap the national rules leave: smaller shared houses of three or four unrelated occupants. The current scheme runs borough-wide, across all 21 wards, from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029.
Neither of these is the same as selective licensing, which covers ordinary single-household lets in specific wards. A property can need more than one licence at once — a four-bed house-share in a selective licensing ward could, in principle, need both an additional HMO licence and fall within the selective scheme’s boundaries, though the council treats HMO licensing as taking precedence where both would otherwise apply. If you’re unsure which applies to a specific address, the council’s licensing checker is the reliable way to confirm it, since the rules genuinely overlap in ways that aren’t obvious from the property alone.
What it costs
| Licence type | Initial fee | Re-licence fee |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory, single tenancy (5+ occupants) | £871–£934 | £711–£743 |
| Mandatory, multiple tenancies (5+ tenancies) | £1,093–£1,560 | £891–£945 |
| Additional (3–4 occupants) | £849–£1,083 | Late fee £956–£1,147 if unlicensed 28+ days |
Fees are split into two parts: Part A covers the council’s admin and processing, paid when you apply; Part B covers the ongoing cost of running the scheme, requested once the application is approved, with 10 working days to pay before the licence is issued.
A handful of discounts are available to licence holders and can be combined up to a maximum of £150: £75 off for being an accredited landlord or using a Propertymark-registered agent, £75 off for an EPC rating of C or above, and £75 off for charitable status. None of these apply once a late fee is charged, and discounts can’t be added retroactively after you’ve submitted.
Letting an HMO without the required licence is a criminal offence. The council can pursue prosecution with an unlimited fine, or issue a civil penalty of up to £40,000 as an alternative. Tenants can also apply for a rent repayment order, potentially reclaiming up to 24 months’ rent paid while the property was unlicensed.
What the standards actually require
Getting the licence isn’t the end of it — the property has to meet defined physical standards, and this is where a lot of otherwise well-run HMOs fall down.
- Minimum room sizes. A bedroom for one person aged ten or over must be at least 6.51 square metres. For two people sharing, it’s 10.22 square metres. A room under 4.64 square metres can’t be used as a bedroom at all, for anyone.
- How floor area is measured. Wall to wall at floor level, but only where the ceiling is over 1.5 metres high — sloped ceilings, eaves, and loft space below that height don’t count toward the total, even if the room looks bigger on paper.
- Fire safety. Fire doors, alarms, and escape routes need to meet the standard set out in the council’s licence conditions, not just building regulations from when the property was converted.
- Amenities. Adequate kitchen and bathroom facilities for the number of occupants, sized and equipped appropriately, not just present.
- Management standards. Clear responsibility for the property’s day-to-day management, whether that’s the landlord directly or a named managing agent on the licence.
Letting a room that’s under the minimum size is a breach of the licence and a criminal offence in its own right, separate from operating without a licence at all. If you’ve got a period conversion with awkward room shapes, it’s worth checking the actual measured floor area before you list a room as a fourth bedroom.
What to do before applying
- Confirm the occupant count and household structure. Three unrelated sharers is a different licence to five, and a family of five is no licence at all.
- Check whether the property also sits in a selective licensing ward. HMO and selective licensing can overlap, and the council’s checker will confirm what actually applies.
- Measure every bedroom properly. Wall to wall, excluding anything under 1.5 metres of ceiling height, before you commit to a room count.
- Review fire safety and amenities against the council’s licence conditions, not just general safety standards, since the HMO conditions can be stricter.
- Apply through the council’s licensing portal, with certificates and evidence ready, and budget for both Part A and Part B of the fee.
HMO compliance is one of the more involved parts of letting in Brighton & Hove, and it’s exactly the kind of thing worth getting checked properly before you commit to converting or listing a shared property. We help landlords work out which licence applies, what a property needs to meet standard, and handle the application as part of our managed lettings service.
Not sure if your property needs an HMO licence?
Tell us the occupant count and the address, and we’ll confirm what applies and what, if anything, needs doing before you let it.
Get a licensing checkFees, dates and standards in this article: Brighton & Hove City Council’s HMO licence fees, discounts and exemptions page, and the additional HMO licensing scheme (borough-wide, 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2029), current as of September 2026. National minimum room sizes per the Housing Act 2004 licensing conditions. This is general information and not legal advice — please confirm your property’s specific requirements with the council’s Private Sector Housing team before applying.