Council licensing in East of England
Licensing in Basildon
Basildon has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.
Checked 14 Oct 2026
Check an address in Basildon
We'll match the postcode to its ward and the schemes below.
Licensing, ward by ward
Select a ward to see its name and licensing.
- National rules only14
Current ward boundaries from ONS. Some homes are exempt, so check your postcode and the scheme details below.
- Selective licensing
- None
- Additional HMO licensing
- No
- Article 4 on house shares
- Not yet confirmed
- Consultation
- None open
Licensing schemes
Mandatory HMO licence
In forceMedium confidenceMandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, Basildon fees)
- Area
The whole of Basildon borough (national scheme).
- Fee
£1,280
Basildon charges per unit of accommodation (each sleeping room), not a flat fee. From the 2026/27 Schedule of Fees and Charges (effective 1 April 2026; Cabinet 3 February 2026, Enclosure 6): new application £202 per unit for up to 6 units and £101 per unit for 7 or more units, plus a maintenance fee of £270 payable on grant (the licence is not valid until it is paid). Renewal £135 per unit up to 6 units and £101 per unit for 7 or more, plus £270 on grant. The standard figure shown here, £1,280, is the council's charges applied to a five-room HMO (5 x £202 + £270); it is not a figure the council publishes. A 15% reduction on the application fee applies to landlords in a landlord accreditation scheme; landlords with 5 or more licensable HMOs in the borough get £35 off each application. New for 2026/27: a lapsed renewal is charged at the new-application rate, and a missed inspection costs £135. The 2025/26 rates (£195 per unit, £98 for 7 or more, £260 maintenance, renewal £98 / £65) were still shown on the archived HMO page.
- Who needs one
- Every HMO occupied by five or more people forming two or more separate households, regardless of the number of storeys.
How we checked this
This is the national scheme. basildon.gov.uk returned a Cloudflare challenge (HTTP 403) to automated fetching on 14 October 2026, so the council's HMO page was read from the Wayback Machine snapshot of 30 April 2025, and the fees from the 2026/27 fee schedule in the Cabinet papers on basildonmeetings.info. Applications are made through GOV.UK (online with card payment) or by post to HMO Licensing, Environmental Health Services, The Basildon Centre, St Martin's Square, Basildon SS14 1DL. Since 1 January 2023 only valid applications are accepted; a valid application needs the form, fee, electrical installation condition report (within 5 years), gas safety record, fire alarm test certificate, fire risk assessment, emergency lighting certificate if fitted, floor plans with room sizes and fire precautions, PAT certificates for all landlord-supplied appliances (from 1 February 2024), an EPC rated E or above and, where relevant, the owner and management agreement. Processing takes 8 to 10 weeks and includes an inspection. Licences include mandatory and discretionary conditions. The council reported 289 licensed HMOs on 1 October 2025.
Article 4 for house shares
Whether Basildon has an Article 4 direction on house shares.
Civil penalty policy
The council's policy sets how it decides the size of a fine. The version we found has been updated for the Renters' Rights Act.
On 23 July 2026 Cabinet adopted a model 'Civil Penalties Policy 2026' and a model 'Private Rented Sector Housing Enforcement Policy 2026', published by the Association of Chief Environmental Health Officers (the report abbreviates it ACHEO), covering civil penalties under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and other housing legislation. Failure to obtain an HMO licence (s.72(1)) has a starting point of £17,000 against the £40,000 statutory maximum, adjusted by 20% for landlord type (£13,600 down, £20,400 up). Breaches of licence conditions use starting levels the council sets by the type of condition. Only the Cabinet papers were checked, because the council website could not be fetched; whether the adopted policies are published on basildon.gov.uk was not confirmed.
Consultations
We found no consultations when we researched Basildon.
Not yet confirmed
We could not settle these points when we researched Basildon on 14 October 2026. Check them with the council before you rely on them.
- Not yet confirmed
Selective licensing is under study but no consultation has started. Cabinet reports of 22 May 2025 and 11 September 2025 ('Selective Licensing of Private Sector Housing') describe feasibility work on a scheme for privately rented single-household homes. The September 2025 report found the 20% private-rented threshold could be met in a number of Lower Super Output Areas, agreed further screening and, in principle, a full feasibility study, and said a further report would come to Cabinet 'no later than March 2026' before any public consultation. No such report appeared on Cabinet agendas from January to October 2026, and the October 2026 Cabinet work programme does not list it. Check for a feasibility report or consultation.
- Not yet confirmed
Article 4: confirm whether the immediate and non-immediate C3 to C4 directions approved on 29 October 2025 were made, which areas the immediate direction covers, and their effective dates.
- Not yet confirmed
basildon.gov.uk blocks automated fetching (Cloudflare). The HMO page was read from a Wayback snapshot of 30 April 2025; the current page, licence length and licence conditions could not be checked.
- Not yet confirmed
No additional HMO licensing scheme or proposal was found in Cabinet, Housing Scrutiny Committee or Full Council papers for 2025 and 2026.
Landlord register
The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Basildon is in East of England, where registration is planned from 15 January 2027 to 14 April 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register