HMO inspections: what to check, and what a licensing officer looks for

A house in multiple occupation is inspected more, complained about more and enforced against more than any other kind of let. The landlords who find that painless are the ones with a file, and the file is built by routine visits rather than assembled in a panic when the council writes.

Licensing, briefly

Mandatory licensing applies to HMOs occupied by five or more people forming two or more households, anywhere in England and Wales. On top of that, councils can introduce additional licensing for smaller HMOs and selective licensing for other private rentals in a designated area. Lincoln, like most university cities, has significant HMO stock, so check the council's current designations rather than assuming.

Licence conditions vary by authority and commonly cover amenity standards, room sizes, waste, and the management arrangements. Operating an unlicensed HMO that requires a licence exposes a landlord to prosecution or a civil penalty, and to a rent repayment order.

Fire safety, which is what gets looked at first

• Fire doors present where required, self-closing, and not wedged open.
• Intumescent strips and cold smoke seals intact rather than painted over.
• The alarm system appropriate to the property, tested, with a record of testing.
• Escape route clear, and not used for storage. This is the single most common failure.
• Emergency lighting where required, working.
• Fire blanket in the shared kitchen where the licence requires it.

Condition, room by room

Record each let room individually, by room number, so a single room's history can be pulled out when one tenant leaves and another arrives mid-year. Record communal areas separately: kitchen, bathrooms, hall, stairs, garden. In a student HMO these change at very different rates.

• Damp and mould, particularly in the smallest and least heated rooms.
• Ventilation: extractors present and actually working in kitchen and bathrooms.
• Furniture condition and fire labelling where the room is let furnished.
• Waste and bins, which is where most neighbour complaints originate.
• Occupancy: how many people appear to be living there, against the licence.

Notice, room by room

Each tenant has their own room and their own right to notice, so 24 hours in writing applies per room, not per building. A visit that walks into occupied rooms without notice is a complaint waiting to happen. Rooms that cannot be accessed are recorded as no access with the notice given, which is honest and is itself evidence.

See HMO inspections for how we run these, and how often a landlord can inspect for the notice rules in full.