Licensing in Trafford

Trafford has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Checked 15 Oct 2026

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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: Yes
Consultation: None open

Licensing schemes

Mandatory HMO licence
In force
Mandatory HMO licensing
Area
Whole Trafford Council administrative area. The separate borough-wide HMO Article 4 direction concerns planning permission.
Fee
Published standard fee: £1,223
Current application page: £1,012 on application for up to six bedrooms plus £211 on grant, total £1,223, with £25 for each bedroom above six. Both stages must be paid when required before the council progresses that stage. The official 2026/27 consolidated fees book corroborates £1,012, £211 and £25 but describes the additional unit as a habitable room above six rather than a bedroom. Confirm the chargeable room count with Housing Standards before calculating a larger-property total. Variation £331; optional pre-application advice £435. No distinct renewal tariff, discount, refund schedule or precise fee-year commencement day was established; do not assume the initial fee is also the renewal price.
Who needs one
HMOs rented to five or more people from more than one household, regardless of storeys, meeting the shared-amenity, self-contained-flat or partly converted-building tests. The council includes buildings where accommodation shares or lacks a basic amenity, qualifying shared flats, and converted buildings where at least one unit is not self-contained.
Exemptions
Purpose-built flats in blocks containing three or more self-contained flats are excluded from mandatory licensing. Other statutory exclusions apply. A section 257 converted block is not automatically subject to mandatory licensing as a building; qualifying individual shared flats can be licensable. Management and safety duties may apply to unlicensed HMOs.
Apply on the council’s website Licence conditions
How we checked this
The statutory maximum licence term is five years; the exact issued term and renewal arrangements must be checked with the council. The current application page requires a signed application emailed to Housing Standards or posted to the council, after online payment of the application fee. Supporting documents include measured floor plans, fire-alarm and emergency-lighting certificates, gas safety certificate, EICR, tenancy agreement, applicable extinguisher/PAT certificates and a basic DBS certificate obtained within six months of application. The council assesses suitability, amenities, fit-and-proper-person status and management arrangements. Published HMO standards distinguish management duties from licensing. No made current or approved future additional or selective designation, defined live optional-licensing consultation, or optional scheme ending in the preceding twelve months was established in the primary HMO service pages and targeted council/committee searches. This is a qualified research finding; the published reference to selective-licensing offences in a general enforcement policy is not itself a designation. The council-linked amenity standards document identifies itself as the April 2020 version, despite its later upload path; confirm any later amendments and the current property-specific issued conditions with Housing Standards.
Sources

Article 4 for house shares

Trafford 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: Borough-wide withdrawal of permitted development for change of use from a C3 dwellinghouse to a C4 small HMO. The current council HMO Article 4 page expressly says the direction is in place across Trafford. The committee report records immediate effect from 21 December 2017; the 8 March 2018 final minutes approve confirmation for all land within the borough boundary and delegate formal confirmation/publicity. The report’s Appendix 2 borough-boundary plan was visually inspected; its attached order template has uncompleted seal/date fields, so it is not represented as the executed instrument. The exact later sealing date remains unconfirmed. Current page: https://www.trafford.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-support-and-information/article-4-directions/article-4-direction-houses-multiple-occupation-hmo ; confirmation minutes: https://democratic.trafford.gov.uk/documents/g2136/Printed%20minutes%2008th-Mar-2018%2018.30%20Planning%20and%20Development%20Management%20Committee.pdf?T=1 ; report and map: https://democratic.trafford.gov.uk/documents/s26695/Agenda%20Item%205%20-%20Confirmation%20of%20Article%204%20Direction.pdf . Larger HMOs and changes from other uses remain separate planning matters.
Takes effect: 21 Dec 2017

Council source

Civil penalty policy

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

A published standalone RRA civil-penalty policy is version 1 with a cover effective date of May 2026 and review May 2027. It explicitly covers RRA tenancy offences and £7,000/£40,000 categories, statutory starting points, landlord-type adjustments and aggravating/mitigating factors. However, the directly fetched 21 September 2026 Executive minutes resolve to note the policies and recommend them to Council for approval, not to adopt them. They were listed as item 7 for Council on 14 October, but the current item page supplies no final resolution and the indexed Council report and appendix links returned 404 during research. The issue record still says For Determination. Final Council adoption and operative policy therefore remain unconfirmed; the May date on the proposed policy is insufficient evidence. Executive minutes: democratic.trafford.gov.uk ; Council item: democratic.trafford.gov.uk ; issue record: democratic.trafford.gov.uk .

Trafford's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Trafford.

Not yet confirmed

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

Not yet confirmed
Obtain the final Council decision on the RRA enforcement and civil-penalty policies listed for 14 October 2026 and confirm the operative date/version. The 21 September Executive resolution recommends approval; the current Council item has no decision text.
Not yet confirmed
Resolve whether the £25 extra-room fee counts bedrooms as stated by the current application page or habitable rooms as stated by the official 2026/27 fees book. Confirm the separate renewal tariff, refund arrangements, licence term and current issued conditions.
Not yet confirmed
Confirm whether any additional or selective housing licensing designation or formal consultation has been made since the reviewed service pages. No such current or approved future scheme, or recent expiry, was established in targeted primary searches; this is not an unconditional exemption guarantee.
Not yet confirmed
Recover the fully executed confirmed HMO Article 4 instrument and exact confirmation/sealing date. Current council guidance, the immediate commencement date and the borough-wide final committee approval are established; the report attachment itself is an unsigned template.

Landlord register

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