Licensing in North East Lincolnshire

• Selective licence

  In force

  East Marsh selective licensing scheme

  Area

  Only the polygon within part of East Marsh, Grimsby, shown on Appendix 1 of the council public notice. It is not the whole East Marsh ward or the whole borough. The boundary has irregular edges around the Grant Thorold area, with parts of roads on the perimeter; Appendix 2 street names must not be treated as a whole-road address list.

  Runs

  8 April 2026 to 6 April 2031

  Fee

  Published standard fee: £1,000

  Published standard fee £1,000: Part A £600 on application and Part B £400 invoiced at draft licence, payable in full within seven days before final grant. Council/DASH-accredited landlords pay £725 (£600 + £125) after accreditation is verified and the invoice updated; do not pay the undiscounted invoice while confirmation is pending. Accreditation and relevant training must be maintained each year; a lapse makes £275 payable. A £200 late charge applies where no application was made in the first six months. Council June/September 2026 notices set an application deadline of 8 October 2026, now passed. This is not an early-bird discount. Confirm the late surcharge and any case-specific enforcement position.

  Who needs one

  Privately rented houses or dwellings occupied under a tenancy or licence inside the designation boundary, including single people, families and two to four unrelated sharers, unless exempt. HMOs required to be licensed under Part 2 are excluded from selective licensing.

  Exemptions

  Public notice excludes Part 2-licensable HMOs, registered-social-landlord tenancies, interim/final management orders, temporary exemptions under section 86 and specified statutory exemptions. Current guidance describes qualifying public bodies/student-code accommodation, long leases, holiday lets and relevant resident-landlord arrangements; check the specific exemption.

  Apply on the council’s websiteLicence conditionsCouncil's map or designation
  ›How we checked this

  The actual public notice says designation made 8 October 2025, commencement 8 April 2026 and cease to have effect on 7 April 2031; the recorded last operative day is therefore 6 April 2031. Current council web text instead says remains in force until 7 April 2031; confirm the endpoint before relying on the final-day calculation. The notice is dated 16 October 2025 and describes a purple edge, while the displayed Appendix 1 boundary appears red; the actual plan was visually inspected. Its Appendix 2 street list includes long roads crossed or followed by the polygon, so check the exact address against the council map rather than assuming every address on a listed road is inside. Current news variously calls the approval 7 or 8 October; the made date follows the legal notice. Apply through the council’s delivery partner Home Safe, not a separate HMO application. Individual licences run to the scheme endpoint rather than five years from late grant. The published conditions cover permitted occupation, annual gas safety, electrical and alarm safety, management, waste and prompt notification of material changes. The page retains a stale FAQ saying no current scheme and older penalty/rent-repayment text; these are contradicted by the designation, active application instructions and 2026 launch/enforcement notices. A 2020 consultation was paused; no separate recently ended designation or made expansion was established.

  Sources

  • nelincs.gov.uk: selective licensing
  • nelincs.gov.uk: Public Notice Selective Licensing 15.10.2025 (PDF)
  • nelincs.gov.uk: Selective Licensing conditions V2 (PDF)
  • nelincs.gov.uk: Guidance notes V2 (PDF)
  • nelincs.gov.uk: landlords urged to take advantage of support for selective licensing and renters rights reforms
  • home-safe.org.uk: north east lincolnshire council selective licensing

• Mandatory HMO licence

  In force

  Mandatory HMO licensing

  Area

  Whole North East Lincolnshire Council district, including Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham; not neighbouring North Lincolnshire Council.

  Fee

  Published standard fee: £850

  Current HMO page lists £850 for a new or renewal licence for up to six occupants, plus £115 per additional occupant. The same page separately states a £150 non-refundable submission/Stage 1 fee and says a Stage 2 fee is due within 14 days of the decision to issue. It does not clearly reconcile the £150 with the £850 headline or publish a reliable Stage 2 amount; no split or extra £150 total is inferred. Its table quotes £160 basic variation plus additional-occupant charges, while later text says no charge to vary. Confirm the property-specific invoice and operative tariff; no financial-year label or current discount was established.

  Who needs one

  HMOs occupied by five or more people forming two or more households and sharing facilities such as kitchens, bathrooms or toilets, subject to statutory exclusions. The whole converted-block definition does not itself establish mandatory licensing.

  Exemptions

  Current guidance lists qualifying public-sector/educational management, buildings otherwise regulated, and owner/long-lease occupation among exemptions. Temporary exemption notices and management orders require separate assessment. Confirm the exact legal exclusion for the building.

  Apply on the council’s website
  ›How we checked this

  Apply or renew online through MyNELincs. A valid renewal needs the completed form, payment and returned declaration before expiry. The current page says five-year licences only, but later allows rare accepted late renewals for one year; confirm the actual term rather than assuming an entitlement to five years. Certificates must be updated as they expire; inspection informs property-specific licence conditions. The page lists electrical, fire-alarm, fire-risk and planning-certificate requirements. Licences are not transferable and purchasers need a new application. Current licensing instructions and the March 2026 working-group records do not establish an additional HMO designation; generic discretionary powers and proposals to gather evidence are not adopted schemes. Smaller HMOs in the East Marsh selective boundary can require a selective licence. Some current page text overstates all-HMO licensing and contains older £30,000 penalty material; use the explicit mandatory criteria and separately confirmed discretionary scope.

  Sources

  • nelincs.gov.uk: houses in multiple occupation hmo
  • nelincs.gov.uk: 5. House in Multiple Occupancy Progress Report (PDF)
  • nelincs.gov.uk: 4. HMO Cabinet Working Group Minutes 4th March 2026 (PDF)
  • nelincs.gov.uk: selective licensing

Council source

North East Lincolnshire's civil penalty policy

We found no consultations when we researched North East Lincolnshire.

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

• Not yet confirmed

  Confirm the HMO tariff and payment split: the current page gives £850 up to six occupants plus £115 each additional occupant, but separately states £150 Stage 1 without reconciling it with that total. Clarify the £160 variation table versus no-charge variation text and any applicable financial-year schedule.

• Not yet confirmed

  Confirm actual licence terms and late-renewal treatment: the HMO page says five-year licences only but also allows rare accepted late applications with a one-year licence. Obtain complete current standard and property-specific HMO conditions.

• Not yet confirmed

  Confirm the selective scheme’s final operative day: the legal notice says cease to have effect on 7 April 2031, while the current webpage says remains in force until 7 April. The recorded last day follows the legal cease wording. Also distinguish Cabinet approval date from made date and later notice-signing date.

• Not yet confirmed

  Check every property against the official selective map, especially perimeter properties on Cleethorpe Road, Convamore Road, Durban Road, Carr Lane and other listed roads. Appendix 2 alone is not an exhaustive whole-road boundary description.

• Not yet confirmed

  Obtain the current adopted housing civil-penalty policy and any Renters’ Rights Act replacement, with adoption and transitional dates. A national reform briefing and a news reference to £40,000 do not establish a local scoring matrix.

• Not yet confirmed

  Confirm any later additional/selective expansion, defined consultation or HMO-specific Article 4 direction. March working-group recommendations and evidence gathering are not designations; the current East Marsh scheme is a neighbourhood polygon, not a whole-ward control.

• Not yet confirmed

  Ask the council to reconcile stale no-current-scheme and old penalty paragraphs on its active licensing pages; do not rely on those passages over the current legal notice and dated launch/enforcement instructions.

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. North East Lincolnshire is in Yorkshire and The Humber, where registration is planned from 15 April 2027 to 14 July 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register