Council licensing in North West

Licensing in Cheshire East

Cheshire East has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Checked 15 Oct 2026

Check an address in Cheshire East

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 only52

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: Yes
Consultation: None open

Licensing schemes

Mandatory HMO licence
In force
Mandatory HMO licensing
Area
The current Cheshire East Council area. Cheshire West and Chester is a separate council. The three Crewe Article 4 planning areas are not additional housing-licensing designations.
Fee
Published standard fee: £1,076
Current page explicitly covers applications received 1 April 2026–31 March 2027. New licence: 5–6 units £1,076; 7–12 £1,142; 13–20 £1,236; 21+ £1,315. Renewal: £861/£913/£966/£1,026 respectively. Manual application surcharge £100; advice visit/aborted appointment £126. No two-stage split or discount established. Units is the council's published charging label, not an inferred bedroom/person equivalence.
Who needs one
HMOs occupied by at least five people from two or more households sharing basic facilities. Current guidance includes converted flats and qualifying purpose-built HMO flats in blocks containing no more than two flats; confirm statutory exclusions for the particular building.
Apply on the council’s website
How we checked this
Licences last up to five years and cannot transfer between holders/properties. Online and postal applications available; a late renewal or changed holder requires a new application. Current HMO page still contains historical £30,000 sanction wording; the adopted May 2026 enforcement policy is used for current enforcement. Targeted current official/committee searches found no active additional/selective designation, approved future designation, live consultation or optional scheme ended in the last twelve months. This is bounded research, not express current council confirmation of absence. A March 2024 decision deferred Nantwich Road selective licensing while awaiting national legislation; it did not designate an area. That historical political view is not a legal conclusion that the later national database replaces licensing. No later operative designation was recovered.
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

Cheshire East has an Article 4 direction on HMOs (houses in multiple occupation, or shared houses). Turning a family home into a shared house may need planning permission.

Area: Three mapped areas around Nantwich Road, Hungerford Road and West Street in Crewe, removing C3-to-C4 permitted development rights from 1 November 2021. Applies to the red-edged legal plans, not all Crewe, entire named roads, wards or Cheshire East. Original making 6 October 2020; public confirmation notice says confirmed 4 June 2021 (notice dated 16 June), while the landing page refers to a 9 April 2021 confirmation decision. Preserve this administrative-date discrepancy; both confirm the operative 1 November start. The three signed directions and their red-edged plans were independently visually inspected during verification: each states C3-to-C4 restriction, made 6 October 2020, confirmed 4 June 2021, operative 1 November 2021. No precise address determination or geometry extraction is claimed. https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/pdf/planning/spatial-planning/article-4-direction/2.-confirmed-art-4-nantwich-road.pdf ; https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/pdf/planning/spatial-planning/article-4-direction/3.-confirmed-art-4-hungerford-road.pdf ; https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/pdf/planning/spatial-planning/article-4-direction/4.-confirmed-art-4-west-street.pdf .
Takes effect: 1 Nov 2021

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.

Corporate Policy Committee approved the revised policy on 30 April 2026, item 7, effective for breaches/offences on or after 1 May 2026. It incorporates RRA2025 and current statutory guidance; mandatory HMO unlicensed starting point £17,000, maximum £40,000 with case-specific adjustments. November 2021 policy applies to earlier offences. Current primary adoption minutes: moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk . No later replacement found.

Cheshire East's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Cheshire East.

Not yet confirmed

We could not settle these points when we researched Cheshire East on 15 October 2026. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

Not yet confirmed
Obtain express current confirmation that no additional/selective scheme or new consultation/designation supersedes the historical Nantwich Road deferral. Generic powers in older guidance and committee discussion do not prove active licensing or absence.
Not yet confirmed
Resolve the Article 4 administrative confirmation dates (9 April decision versus 4 June confirmation in public notice) if needed. Commencement 1 November 2021 is supported by current planning page, adopted HOU4 and legal public notice. Exact properties require the red-edged plans and council confirmation, not road/ward matching.
Not yet confirmed
Confirm any current standalone licence-conditions document, charging-unit definition, exemptions, discounts or payment split not stated in the retrieved live HMO guidance. General amenities guidance is not a complete issued licence.
Not yet confirmed
Historical £30,000 sanction text remains on the HMO landing page; use the adopted current enforcement policy, not that paragraph, for offences from 1 May 2026.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Cheshire East is in North West, where registration is planned from 15 May 2027 to 14 August 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register