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Council licensing in East of England

Licensing in East Suffolk

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

Checked 14 Oct 2026

Check an address in East Suffolk

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 only29

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 (national scheme, East Suffolk fees)

    Area

    The whole of East Suffolk district (national scheme).

    Fee

    £1,229.90

    From the East Suffolk Council Fees and Charges 2026/27 schedule (section 6.1). New licence, up to and including seven lettable units: Part A (grant of licence) £515.85 plus Part B (scheme management) £714.05, £1,229.90 in total; £25 per lettable unit over seven. Renewal: Part A £345.81 plus Part B £702.72, £1,048.53 in total. Variation with no structural changes: no charge. The application forms say the fee is calculated from the team's hourly rate and updated annually, and payment is by bank transfer or cheque.

    Who needs one
    All HMOs with five or more people living in two or more households, regardless of the number of storeys, including flats with five or more people in two or more households that were not purpose-built for multiple occupation and flats above or below commercial premises.
    Apply on the council's websiteLicence conditions
    How we checked this

    This is the national scheme. East Suffolk publishes its own HMO page, application and renewal forms (PDF), licence conditions, an HMO Standards Handbook (January 2026) and a licence register. Applications are made on the PDF form. The HMO page contains an outdated sentence saying a licence 'generally' applies to HMOs of three or more storeys; the same page correctly says all HMOs with five or more people in two or more households need a licence regardless of storeys. The application forms still quote a fine of up to £20,000 and a civil penalty of up to £30,000. The council's rogue landlord policy refers to Part 3 licensing only 'were such a scheme ever in effect', consistent with no selective licensing scheme. Licence length is not stated on the council's pages.

    Sources

Article 4 for house shares

East Suffolk 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
The whole of the former Waveney District Council area. The council's Article 4 page says the direction 'covers all of the former Waveney district area, and removes the rights for a change of use of a dwelling to a use falling with Class C4 (houses in multiple occupation)'. The published order is a Waveney District Council direction under article 4(1) applying to all properties in the Waveney area in use as C3 dwelling houses. Its handwritten seal dates appear to show it was made on 26 January 2011 and confirmed on 22 July 2011, but the 'shall come into force on' line is blank on the published copy, so the in-force date is not recorded here. The council's Article 4 page lists no HMO direction for the former Suffolk Coastal area. Separately, the council's Supplementary Housing Statement says Waveney Local Plan policy WLP8.4 requires 'exceptional circumstances' for new HMO conversions of any size in the former Waveney area.

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' (uploaded September 2026), linked from the council's Housing policies and strategies page with a Housing Standards Enforcement Policy. Its cover still names the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations, but the content follows the government's statutory guidance on civil penalties under the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Failure to obtain an HMO licence (s.72(1)) has a starting point of £17,000 against a statutory maximum of £40,000, with a landlord-type adjustment to £13,600 or £20,400. A 15% discount applies if a final notice penalty is paid in full within the period in the notice (normally 28 days). An earlier version dated February 2025 was published on the council's previous website. The council publishes a housing offence data page listing civil penalty notices issued.

East Suffolk's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched East Suffolk.

Not yet confirmed

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

  • Not yet confirmed

    The in-force date of the former Waveney Article 4 HMO direction is blank on the published order; confirm it with the council's planning team.

  • Not yet confirmed

    No selective or additional licensing scheme, proposal or consultation was found on the council website. The council's committee system (eastsuffolk.cmis.uk.com) was not searched in full.

  • Not yet confirmed

    The licence length is not stated on the council's HMO pages or forms.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. East Suffolk 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