Council licensing in East of England

Licensing in East Hertfordshire

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

Checked 14 Oct 2026

Check an address in East Hertfordshire

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, East Herts fees)
Area
The whole of East Hertfordshire district (national scheme).
Fee
£1,462
From the council's Environmental Health Fees and Charges page, fees from 1 April 2026. New application, no more than five bedrooms: Part 1 £1,157 at application (plus any additional bedroom fee) and Part 2 £305 when the draft licence is consulted on and before the final licence, £1,462 in total; or £1,432 if the full fee is paid with the application. Renewal, no more than five bedrooms: Part 1 £916 and Part 2 £305 (£1,221), or £1,191 if paid in full with the application. Additional bedroom above five: £31 each. A renewal received after the existing licence expires is treated as a new application at the higher fee.
Who needs one
A property with five or more tenants forming more than one household.
Apply on the council's website
How we checked this
This is the national scheme. East Herts publishes its own HMO licence page and fees. New, renewal and change applications are made online. The council's general HMO page says 'Currently, HMOs with 5 or more occupants in 2 or more households require a licence' and 'In some other districts other properties also require a licence under additional or selective licensing', which indicates no discretionary scheme in East Herts. HMO standards are set out in the council's Guide to HMOs and Amenity Standards (2018). The HMO licence page says failing to license can lead to a fine of up to £20,000, while the general HMO page says an unlimited fine; fines on conviction have been unlimited since 2015. A public register of licensed HMOs is published (September 2026 edition). Neither page states the licence length.
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

We found no Article 4 direction on house shares in East Hertfordshire.

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 latest policy found is 'Policies for Enforcing Standards for Private Sector Landlords', adopted by Council on 21 October 2020 and amended by a non-key decision in January 2021 to cover electrical safety penalties. The linked file is the September 2020 draft put to Overview and Scrutiny; the adopted text was not found on the council website. It uses a Herts and Beds financial penalty matrix scoring culpability, removal of financial incentive, offence history and harm (each 1 to 20); the total maps to bands from £250 (score 1 to 5) to £30,000 (96 to 100). The example given for £20,000 to £25,000 (scores 76 to 95) is a portfolio landlord evading HMO licensing and not complying with improvement notices for Category 1 hazards. Aggravating factors can move a penalty into the next band. The maximum stated is £30,000. No Renters' Rights Act 2025 update was found.

East Hertfordshire's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched East Hertfordshire.

Not yet confirmed

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

Not yet confirmed
No Renters' Rights Act 2025 civil penalty policy was found on the council website or in its committee papers (searches for 'civil penalty', 'civil penalties' and 'Renters Rights Act'). Confirm whether an updated policy has been adopted.
Not yet confirmed
The adopted 2020 civil penalty policy is not published on the council website; the linked version is the draft considered by Overview and Scrutiny in September 2020.
Not yet confirmed
The council does not state outright that it has no selective or additional licensing; this is inferred from its HMO page wording and a committee papers search for 'selective licensing' (no proposals found).
Not yet confirmed
The licence length is not stated on the council's HMO pages.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. East Hertfordshire 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