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Licensing in Guildford

Guildford has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

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Check an address in Guildford

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 only21

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
Not yet confirmed
Consultation
None open

Licensing schemes

  • Mandatory HMO licence

    In force

    Mandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, Guildford fees)

    Area

    The whole of Guildford Borough (national scheme).

    Fee

    Published standard fee: £1,037.34

    Council 'Apply for a house of multiple occupation licence' guide (no fee year printed; fetched 26 October 2026): 'The fee for this licence is £1037.34', with a £25 discount for members of a recognised landlord organisation or £50 for accredited landlords of the Guildford Letting Scheme (not both). No renewal rate or two-part split shown.

    Who needs one
    Privately rented properties in Guildford Borough occupied by five or more unrelated people (including children and babies) forming two or more separate households who share a bathroom, kitchen or toilet. The council page says HMOs with three or four unrelated tenants do not need a licence from the council.
    Apply on the council’s website
    How we checked this

    A licence is normally issued for 5 years from the application date, sometimes shorter. Tacit consent does not apply, but an HMO may operate while the application is considered; the council aims to respond within 10 working days, inspects, then issues a Notice of Intention with a 21-day consultation before granting. The planning page says a licence will be limited to one year if the property lacks the right planning consent, with 12 months to obtain it; the minimum bedroom size is 6.51 m2 for licensing and 7.5 m2 where planning permission is required.

    Sources

Article 4 for house shares

Not yet confirmed

Whether Guildford has an Article 4 direction on house shares.

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.

Only the council's corporate Regulatory Enforcement Policy (July 2022) was found; it applies to all regulatory functions. No housing civil penalty policy or matrix, and nothing revised for the Renters' Rights Act 2025, was found in the council's site map or housing pages (26 October 2026).

Guildford's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Guildford.

Not yet confirmed

We could not settle these points when we researched Guildford. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

  • Not yet confirmed

    No selective or additional licensing scheme, proposal or consultation was found in the council's site map, on its private housing and HMO pages, or in its committee records; the November 2021 Executive Advisory Board report recommended against additional HMO licensing. Absence is inferred, not stated by the council.

  • Not yet confirmed

    Whether the Executive formally decided on the November 2021 recommendation was not traced; the council's About My Area map was not checked for any HMO Article 4 direction.

  • Not yet confirmed

    Locate any housing-specific civil penalty policy and whether it has been revised for the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (committee search for 'Renters Rights civil penalty' returned no results).

  • Not yet confirmed

    Confirm the fee year of the £1,037.34 HMO fee.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Guildford is in South East, where registration is planned from 15 March 2027 to 14 June 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register