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Council licensing in East of England

Licensing in Central Bedfordshire

Central Bedfordshire has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Checked 14 Oct 2026

Check an address in Central Bedfordshire

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 only31

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 forceMedium confidence

    Mandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, Central Bedfordshire fees)

    Area

    The whole of Central Bedfordshire (national scheme).

    Fee

    £1,146 for 5 years

    From Central Bedfordshire's 'Housing fees, 2026 to 2027' PDF, linked from the council's fees and charges page (its table is headed '2026 Fees & Charges - Housing, charges with effect from 1st January 2026 to 31st December 2026'). Part 1, paid with the application to cover processing and determining it: £389.60 per property plus £42.20 per flat or lettable room. Part 2, paid if the application succeeds and before the final licence is issued, to cover running and enforcing the scheme: £168.90 per property plus £75.30 per flat or lettable room. standard_gbp is the total for an HMO with five lettable rooms (£600.60 + £545.40 = £1,146.00); each extra room adds £117.50 (£42.20 + £75.30). A licence variation costs £147.40. The council's FAQ says the fee changes each year and that a Part 1 fee is not refunded if the application is refused for not being duly made.

    Who needs one
    Licensable HMOs under the national scheme (five or more people forming two or more households who share facilities). The council's pages describe licensable and non-licensable HMOs and refer landlords to GOV.UK for the definition.
    Apply on the council's website
    How we checked this

    This is the national scheme. Central Bedfordshire publishes its own HMO pages and an online application and renewal form. The council says a licence lasts from 1 to 5 years depending on previous compliance and intervention; licence_length_years records the maximum. Renewals must be made before expiry and in the same name as the previous licence. Licences are not transferable, so a buyer of an HMO must apply afresh. The council's landlord page says operating an HMO without the proper licence carries an unlimited fine and tenants can claim back up to a year's rent. No separate licence conditions document was found.

    Sources

Article 4 for house shares

We found no Article 4 direction on house shares in Central Bedfordshire.

Council source

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.

'Civil Penalty Policy and Approach to Enforcement under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (and other housing legislation)', Private Sector Housing, version 1, approved by the Head of Housing Solutions on 30 April 2026, review date 30 April 2028. It was finalised after a consultation from 4 to 31 March 2026 (results page linked in the consultations entry) and follows the ACEHO/Justice for Tenants national model: maximum £7,000 for breaches and £40,000 for offences. Failure to obtain an HMO licence (s.72(1)) has a starting point of £17,000, adjusted by 20% for landlord type (£13,600 or £20,400). A separate penalty can be issued for each breach and to each responsible landlord or agent. A 15% discount applies if a final notice penalty is paid in full within the period in the notice (normally 28 days), and remains available to a landlord who appeals and pays in time. The council's 2026 housing fees schedule still describes penalties for HMO and selective licensing offences as 'up to a maximum of £30,000'.

Central Bedfordshire's civil penalty policy

Consultations

Not yet confirmed

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

  • Not yet confirmed

    No selective or additional licensing scheme, proposal or consultation was found. The council does not state the absence; it is inferred from its HMO pages and a search of all 22,177 URLs in its sitemap (no licensing scheme pages). The committee papers site (centralbeds.moderngov.co.uk) is behind a Cloudflare challenge and could not be searched.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Central Bedfordshire 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