Council licensing in South West

Licensing in Somerset

Somerset has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Checked 15 Oct 2026

Check an address in Somerset

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 only55

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
Current Somerset Council administrative area. The council’s single current HMO page and whole-Somerset register cover this unitary area. Legacy district Article 4 restrictions are separate; no rule from Yeovil is generalised to Somerset as a whole. North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset are separate authorities.
Fee
Published standard fee: £949
Current HMO page updated 9 October 2026: new HMO licence (5 bed max) £949, comprising £738 Part 1 and £211 Part 2; £43 for each additional person over five. Renewal (5 bed max) £836, comprising £625 Part 1 and £211 Part 2; £33 for each additional person over five. Part 1 is non-refundable if unsuccessful/withdrawn. Part 2 is due when the council confirms it will issue a licence. The prose says additional households at Part 2, whereas the fee-table row says additional person: confirm the charging unit for larger HMOs.
Who needs one
An HMO occupied by five or more people from more than one household sharing basic amenities such as a toilet, bathroom or kitchen. Council guidance additionally says a purpose-built flat with five occupants is licensable where the building has fewer than three flats.
Apply on the council’s website Licence conditions
How we checked this
Apply using the form linked by the council HMO page; completed form, fee, layout/fire-safety plan, satisfactory EICR, gas certificate where applicable, and relevant fire/emergency-lighting/PAT certificates are required. Licence usually five years from application/renewal; shorter terms possible for late licensing, management or condition concerns with no fee reduction. Licences are not transferable. The page links conditions and standards via SharePoint, but direct public fetch redirected to a Microsoft sign-in page; the linked documents were not read. No selective/additional designation, approved proposal, consultation or scheme ending since 15 October 2025 was identified through current housing/HMO pages and targeted current/legacy-district council/committee searches. This is a bounded research finding, not express council confirmation. The current HMO page still contains historical £30,000/12-month-RRO wording; those figures are not treated as current law.
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

Somerset 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: Defined Yeovil HMO zones 1–5 in the former South Somerset district, not the whole unitary area or necessarily all Yeovil. The current council Article 4 index (updated 23 June 2026) lists “Yeovil, HMOs zones 1-5”, date confirmed 2021. Its linked current order/map redirected to Microsoft sign-in, so exact current geography/effective date are unconfirmed. The fetched 2018 primary committee report describes the original direction effective 19 November 2016 and proposed enlargement, but that old footprint is not substituted for the current indexed order. Other listed legacy directions concern different development rights and are not assumed to restrict C3-to-C4 changes. A separately fetched 6 May 2020 Area South item recommended making a College Green Zone 6 direction and starting consultation/publicity; that recommendation is not treated as a confirmed operative direction. Its later status and any revised boundaries need the current signed instrument. Source: https://modgov.southsomerset.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=15621

Council source

Civil penalty policy

The council's policy sets how it decides the size of a fine.

Current Housing Strategies and Policies page (updated 17 September 2026) expressly says the Housing Enforcement Policy is under review in light of the Renters’ Rights Act and will be published there: somerset.gov.uk . The Executive’s actual decision of 7 July 2025 confirms approval of the civil-penalty policy in Appendix 1, effective 1 August 2025; the independently retrieved decision summary corroborates it: somerset.moderngov.co.uk . This corrects the earlier proposal-only uncertainty. The accompanying report uses pre-RRA £30,000 figures and does not contain the policy Appendix 1 itself. No adopted RRA replacement or current matrix was recovered, so do not present the old maxima as current law. Current housing standards page links an electrical-safety penalty PDF, but that SharePoint document is not evidence of a wider adopted RRA policy.

Somerset's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Somerset.

Not yet confirmed

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

Not yet confirmed
Obtain explicit current Somerset Council confirmation of no additional/selective scheme, approved designation, consultation or recently expired scheme, including any legacy Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset, Somerset West and Taunton (and former Taunton Deane/West Somerset) geography. Searches/current unified guidance found none; do not infer absence solely from the mandatory-HMO page.
Not yet confirmed
Obtain the current Yeovil HMO zones 1–5 order and map linked from https://www.somerset.gov.uk/planning-buildings-and-land/article-4-directions/ (SharePoint https://somersetcc.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/SCCPublic/EU15780KeE9Bol4VvhZk_S4BjlHkdDa_p_1F0EP9bZlzUA?e=zeySQ8 redirects to Microsoft sign-in). Confirm exact current boundaries and effective date; index says confirmed 2021, while historical primary material dates the original direction to 19 November 2016. Separately resolve the later status of College Green proposed Zone 6 and the Roping Road/Mitchelmore Road extensions discussed in the 6 May 2020 committee item: https://modgov.southsomerset.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=15621 . A recommendation to make and consult is not confirmation of an operative direction.
Not yet confirmed
Retrieve the adopted July 2025 policy Appendix 1 and any RRA replacement/current matrix. The 7 July 2025 Executive approval effective 1 August 2025 is now independently confirmed at https://somerset.moderngov.co.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?AIId=9706 and in its published decision summary; current September 2026 policy page says the enforcement policy is under review. RRA adoption/current matrix remains unconfirmed.
Not yet confirmed
Retrieve full HMO conditions and standards from the current council page: direct public requests to both linked SharePoint documents redirected to Microsoft sign-in. Conditions are property-specific.
Not yet confirmed
Confirm whether the additional fee is per person or per household: current table says additional person over five, prose says additional households at Part 2. No silent unit conversion made.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Somerset is in South West, where registration is planned from 15 August 2027 to 14 November 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register