Council licensing in East of England

Licensing in Braintree

Braintree has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Checked 14 Oct 2026

Check an address in Braintree

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 only26

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: None found
Consultation: None open

Licensing schemes

Mandatory HMO licence
In force
Mandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, Braintree fees)
Area
The whole of Braintree District (national scheme).
Fee
£1,040 for 5 years
2026/27 fees on the council's licensing page: new application (licensing fee, application only) £595, plus 'Issue of Licence' (maintenance and monitoring of licence fee, one-off, up to 5-year life) £445, £1,040 in total as shown on the council's fees directory. Renewal of licence £550. No per-room charge or discount is published.
Who needs one
HMOs occupied by five or more persons living as more than one household, where facilities such as a bathroom, living room or kitchen are shared.
Exemptions
The council lists: a property occupied by the owner and family with no more than two lodgers; buildings converted into self-contained flats that meet the 1991 (or later) Building Regulations; converted self-contained flats where at least two-thirds are occupied by long leaseholders (21 years or more); student accommodation controlled by an educational establishment; religious communities; and properties managed by a registered social landlord or public body.
Apply on the council's website
How we checked this
This is the national scheme. Braintree publishes its own page and fees. Applications and renewals are made online through GOV.UK. The council issues licences 'for up to five years', and each HMO needs its own licence. The council publishes a public register of licensed HMOs. Its HMO pages refer to the Essex Approved Code of Practice for Amenity Standards for HMOs. The licensing page still quotes a fine of up to £20,000 for running an unlicensed HMO and up to £5,000 for breaching licence conditions, and does not mention civil penalties.
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

We found no Article 4 direction on house shares in Braintree.

Council source

Civil penalty policy

The council's policy sets how it decides the size of a fine. The version we found has not been updated for the Renters' Rights Act.

The published document is the council's general Environmental Health, Building Control, Licensing and Operations Enforcement Policy (April 2023), which covers private sector housing. It says 'Certain offences under the Housing Act 2004 may be dealt with by way of civil penalty notices as an alternative to prosecution, and this approach has been adopted by Braintree District Council', and that the council has adopted a separate policy with 'a matrix for determining the amount of the civil penalty'. That separate civil penalty policy and matrix was not found on the council website or in a web search, so penalty levels for unlicensed letting are unknown. It has not been updated for the Renters' Rights Act 2025: the council's performance report to Cabinet on 28 September 2026 says it is preparing 'a report recommending adoption of the national model policy framework'.

Braintree's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Braintree.

Not yet confirmed

We could not settle these points when we researched Braintree on 14 October 2026. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

Not yet confirmed
The housing civil penalty policy and matrix referred to in the April 2023 enforcement policy is not published on the council website. A report recommending adoption of the national model (Renters' Rights Act) policy was being prepared in September 2026; record the new policy and its penalty levels once adopted.
Not yet confirmed
No selective or additional licensing scheme, proposal or consultation was found on the council website (licensing and housing pages, sitemap, consultations page, which lists no active consultations). The council's committee papers are on a CMIS system (braintree.cmis.uk.com) that could not be searched directly; a web search of it found nothing on licensing.
Not yet confirmed
The licensing page does not link standard HMO licence conditions.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Braintree 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