Licensing in Southampton

• Additional HMO licence

  In force

  Southampton additional HMO licensing designation 2025

  Area

  The entire nine electoral wards expressly designated in paragraph 4 and Annex A. Current ONS spelling Banister & Polygon is used; current guidance also writes Banister and Polygon.

  9 wards named in the scheme:

  • Banister & Polygon
  • Bargate
  • Bassett
  • Bevois
  • Freemantle
  • Millbrook
  • Portswood
  • Shirley
  • Swaythling

  Ward boundaries: current wards (2025 designation)

  Runs

  1 October 2025 to 29 September 2030

  Fee

  Published standard fee: £953

  Council HMO fees applicable from 1 October 2025, fetched 15 October 2026: timely and compliant standard £953 (£300 non-refundable application stage + £653 licence issue stage); independent approved HMO surveyor route £636 (£300 + £336), plus the surveyor’s separate fee, only if property is fully compliant. Full valid application more than three months after becoming licensable: £1,618 (£300 + £1,318). Timeliness may run from scheme commencement, new licensable letting, becoming person in control or renewal date. Stage two payable within 14 days of receipt of Notice of Intention to grant. Qualifying private large student-accommodation providers (15+ students in a building), members of and complying with an approved ANUK/section 233 code, receive 50% reduction; separate downloadable application. Pre-application visit £76. No general early-bird amount is inferred from conditional surveyor/student reductions.

  Who needs one

  HMOs with three or more occupiers from two or more households which are not already mandatory-licensable; includes smaller three/four-person HMOs and qualifying HMOs in purpose-built accommodation blocks. Section 257 converted blocks are expressly excluded.

  Exemptions

  Designation paragraph 5 excludes mandatory-licensable HMOs, registered-social-landlord tenancies, interim/final management orders, temporary exemptions, Annex B/statutory exemptions, and buildings or parts covered by section 257. Annex B includes specified public bodies, regulated institutions, qualifying educational establishments, religious communities, owners with no more than two other persons, and two-person buildings. Exact statutory eligibility must be checked.

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

  Cabinet approved 17 June 2025, approval effective 26 June; sealed notice dated 24 July 2025 specifies commencement 1 October 2025. The earlier Cabinet report proposed September 2025; that proposed date is superseded by the operative notice/current guidance. Paragraph 3 says “shall cease to have effect on 30 September 2030”: end_date is 29 September under this dataset’s last-day convention. Current criteria/FAQ instead describe the scheme as until/to 30 September 2030; this one-day wording discrepancy needs council confirmation before relying on the expiry day. The notice’s top heading retains “2018”, but citation/body and sealing dates identify the 2025 designation. All additional licences expire with the designation, not five years from late issue; shorter terms possible. Apply within three months of commencement under current guidance to avoid higher fee; this is not an exemption from the requirement to license. Previous D2 ended October 2020 and D3 September 2023, outside the past-12-month inclusion window. The operative notice text and current guidance were independently re-fetched and list the whole nine wards without partial-street restrictions. Annex A map pixels could not be retrieved in the independent pass because native requests returned an Incapsula challenge; no map-visual verification is claimed. Native site returned an Incapsula challenge even for PDF URLs; official notice and current page contents were retrieved through Exa, with receipts outside the repository.

  Sources

  • southampton.gov.uk: additional hmo licensing scheme designation notice july 2025 (PDF)
  • southampton.gov.uk: licences
  • southampton.gov.uk: licence fees
  • southampton.gov.uk: apply
  • southampton.gov.uk: hmo faq
  • southampton.gov.uk: Report (PDF)
  • southampton.gov.uk: Renters Rights Act and Scrutiny Inquiry Update (PDF)

• Mandatory HMO licence

  In force

  Mandatory HMO licensing

  Area

  Southampton City Council administrative area.

  Fee

  Published standard fee: £953

  Council HMO fees applicable from 1 October 2025, fetched 15 October 2026: timely and compliant standard £953 (£300 non-refundable application stage + £653 licence issue stage); independent approved HMO surveyor route £636 (£300 + £336), plus the surveyor’s separate fee, only if property is fully compliant. Full valid application more than three months after becoming licensable: £1,618 (£300 + £1,318). Timeliness may run from scheme commencement, new licensable letting, becoming person in control or renewal date. Stage two payable within 14 days of receipt of Notice of Intention to grant. Qualifying private large student-accommodation providers (15+ students in a building), members of and complying with an approved ANUK/section 233 code, receive 50% reduction; separate downloadable application. Pre-application visit £76. No general early-bird amount is inferred from conditional surveyor/student reductions.

  Who needs one

  HMOs occupied by at least five people forming two or more households who share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities.

  Exemptions

  Purpose-built flats with five or more occupants in blocks comprising three or more self-contained flats are outside mandatory licensing; the council says these may require additional licensing in the designated nine wards. Statutory exemptions and management/temporary-exemption arrangements must be checked for the individual property.

  Apply on the council’s websiteLicence conditions
  ›How we checked this

  Mandatory licence normally five years from issue, with shorter terms possible for management, compliance, paperwork or fit-and-proper concerns. The current application page asks mandatory renewal applications two months before expiry; the reduced fee rules separately refer to a three-month timeliness period. Fit-and-proper holder/manager and suitable amenities/occupation are required. The HMO FAQ still contains pre-RRA Section 21, twelve-month rent repayment and £30,000 penalty wording: these stale enforcement passages are not treated as current law; the July 2026 policy is recorded separately.

  Sources

  • southampton.gov.uk: licences
  • southampton.gov.uk: licence fees
  • southampton.gov.uk: apply
  • southampton.gov.uk: hmo faq

Council source

Southampton's civil penalty policy

• Nine-ward additional HMO licensing scheme consultation (subsequently approved and commenced October 2025)Approved

  Closed 26 Feb 2025

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

• Not yet confirmed

  Confirm the precise final operative day with the council: signed notice says cease on 30 September 2030, whereas current public guidance/FAQ describes the term as until/to that date. This record follows the schema’s cease-date rule rather than silently adding a day.

• Not yet confirmed

  Obtain a readable Annex A map and compare with current ONS boundaries. The operative designation text and current guidance independently agree on the entire nine wards, with current ward spelling confirmed against the ONS registry; primary map pixels remain inaccessible through the native fetch route.

• Not yet confirmed

  Obtain a standalone current 2025 licence-conditions/standards document if available. Current application/FAQ explain requirements but retain stale enforcement passages, so the July 2026 adopted policy governs the enforcement summary.

• Not yet confirmed

  No current selective designation or defined selective consultation was found. The 3 September 2026 scrutiny report expressly calls selective licensing a potential future option subject to evidence, resources and national database impact; a citywide condition survey was due September. Confirm whether any later October decision or post-survey formal consultation has since appeared; an exploratory strategy is not recorded as an operative or proposed designation.

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Southampton 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