Licensing for Landlords

Nottingham City Council Licensing Schemes 

We run three different Licensing Schemes; Mandatory, Additional and Selective from 1 December 2023.

The licence that you need depends on where the property you rent is, and how many people or households live there.

When you apply for a licence, we will work out which Scheme your property comes under based on the answers you give us.

Does my property need a licence

 You can check if your property needs a licence by clicking below.

Check if my property is within a licensing area

Selective Licensing 

The 2nd licence scheme begins on 01 December 2023. The online application form will be available in September 2023 after it has been reviewed and updated making it quicker and easier to apply.

Find out more about Selective Licensing

Additional Licensing

Additional Licensing requires houses in multiple occupation (HMO's) shared by 3 or more people (forming 2 or more households) who share or lack a WC, cooking or personal hygiene facilities and are located within an Additional Licensing area of the City to hold a licence.

Find out more about Additional Licensing

Mandatory Licensing

Mandatory licensing requires houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) shared by 5 or more people, forming 2 or more households, who share or lack a WC, cooking or personal hygiene facilities, located anywhere in the City to hold a licence.

Find out more about Mandatory Licensing

Please remember that licences are given for individual properties so you will need one for each property that you rent out. They can’t be transferred between properties or people either, so a new owner needs a new licence too.

•  View our guide on a checklist of things you should do before renting a property. Visit:.Landlord Safety Responsibilities

Before you apply, you may want to think about becoming an accredited landlord with DASH or Unipol.

You’ll be able to use the Nottingham Standard logo for your marketing and will also pay the lowest licence application fee if you need a Mandatory or Additional (HMO) licence.

You can apply for each licence here. The pages also tell you the documents you must provide to get a licence, such as Gas Safety, EICR, EPC and proof that you have the right to remain in the UK.

Penalties

You can apply for a licence before you rent your property. You should do this because once the property is being rented, if you haven’t applied for a licence, you could be committing an offence and you risk the following:

• A Civil Penalty Notice of up to £30,000
• Your tenants or the Council applying for a Rent Repayment order

This could end up with 100% of a year’s worth of rent being paid back to the tenant or the Council.

• A prosecution including an unlimited fine and a criminal record
• Being put on the ‘National Rogue Landlord Database (GOV.UK Website)’
• Being banned from working as a landlord (and losing the licence to rent anywhere in England) for at least 12 months, and in some cases indefinitely