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Licensing in Vale of White Horse

Vale of White Horse has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

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Check an address in Vale of White Horse

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 only24

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
None found
Consultation
None open

Licensing schemes

  • Mandatory HMO licence

    In force

    Mandatory HMO licensing (national scheme, Vale of White Horse fees)

    Area

    The whole of Vale of White Horse district (national scheme).

    Fee

    Published standard fee: £1,034

    Council page fee table (no page date shown), by bedrooms, Part one application fee + Part two issue fee = total: up to 5 bedrooms £620 + £414 = £1,034; 6 £644 + £429 = £1,073; 7 £667 + £445 = £1,112; 8 £691 + £460 = £1,151; 9 £714 + £476 = £1,190; 10 £737 + £492 = £1,229. 'All fees are set locally by the council, reviewed annually and cover the five year licence period.' Additional HMO advice visits £196. The joint enforcement policy says a renewal application made before expiry by the same licence holder gets a reduced fee; no renewal amount is shown on the page.

    Who needs one
    HMOs occupied by five or more people forming two or more households, which are not purpose-built self-contained flats in a block of three or more self-contained flats. The council page says the HMO needs a licence if it 'is occupied by five or more people' who 'form two or more households'.
    Exemptions
    Purpose-built self-contained flats in a block of three or more self-contained flats; statutory Schedule 14 exemptions.
    Apply on the council’s websiteLicence conditions
    How we checked this

    South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse share a housing service and publish identical HMO pages and fees. The page states: 'The council does not currently operating any additional or selective HMO licensing schemes.' Application by online form; supporting documents list, declaration and guidance notes are linked. Public register: register-production.civicacx.co.uk . The linked HMO standards PDF (April 2024) sets amenity and space standards; no separate licence conditions document is linked.

    Sources

Article 4 for house shares

We found no Article 4 direction on house shares in Vale of White Horse.

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.

The joint South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse 'Housing Enforcement Policy' (cover dated January 2024; file named Final_Apr-24) has Part Two 'Civil Penalties and other Penalty Charges'. It lists offences in relation to licensing of HMOs (section 72) and of houses under Part 3 (section 95) with a maximum of £30,000. Penalties are set by scoring severity, culpability, track record and harm; the combined score maps to five bands: Band 1 (score 4-5) up to £5,999, average starting point £3,000; Band 2 (6-7) £6,000-£11,999, £9,000; Band 3 (8) £12,000-£17,999, £15,000; Band 4 (9-10) £18,000-£23,999, £21,000; Band 5 (11-12) £24,000-£30,000, £27,000. A property 'fully compliant with management regulations/licensing standards but no licence in place' scores 1 (low) on the relevant factor. No version updated for the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (£40,000 / £7,000 levels) was found.

Vale of White Horse's civil penalty policy

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Vale of White Horse.

Not yet confirmed

We could not settle these points when we researched Vale of White Horse. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

  • Not yet confirmed

    No selective or additional licensing scheme, proposal or consultation was found. The council's HMO page states that no additional or selective scheme is operating ('The council does not currently operating any additional or selective HMO licensing schemes'); committee-document searches (democratic.whitehorsedc.gov.uk) for "selective licensing" return no housing items, and "multiple occupation" returns no licensing proposal.

  • Not yet confirmed

    No civil penalty policy updated for the Renters' Rights Act 2025 was found; the January/April 2024 joint enforcement policy still uses the £30,000 maximum, and committee-document and web searches found no 2025-2026 revision. Confirm whether a revised policy has been adopted.

  • Not yet confirmed

    The HMO page shows no 'last updated' date; confirm the fee table is the current year's.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Vale of White Horse 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