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Council licensing in East of England

Licensing in Welwyn Hatfield

Welwyn Hatfield has no selective or additional licensing scheme in force.

Checked 14 Oct 2026

Check an address in Welwyn Hatfield

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 only16

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 (national scheme, Welwyn Hatfield fees)

    Area

    The whole of Welwyn Hatfield borough (national scheme).

    Fee

    £1,339 for 5 years

    From the council's General Fund Fees and Charges 2026/27 (Resident Services and Climate Change Directorate), linked from the HMO licence fees page: application for a basic 5 person HMO £1,339 (2025/26: £1,290); 6 to 10 persons £1,498; 11 or more persons £1,650. A 10% discount applies for members of the PAL (Partnership Accreditation for Landlords) scheme. Changing a licence is free. Payment by card online, by cheque, or by phone on 01707 357 242.

    Who needs one
    HMOs with five or more unrelated people living in them.
    Exemptions
    Statutory exemptions under Schedule 14 of the Housing Act 2004.
    Apply on the council's website
    How we checked this

    This is the national scheme. Welwyn Hatfield publishes its own HMO pages and fees. A licence is valid for up to five years. After a valid application the council inspects, checks that the licence holder and manager are fit and proper, and issues a notice of intent with 21 days for representations; a straightforward application normally takes three months but can take up to a year. Tacit consent does not apply. Penalties stated by the council: an unlimited fine on conviction, a civil penalty of up to £30,000 per offence, a rent repayment order of up to a year's rent, and no valid section 21 notice while unlicensed. Planning permission may also be needed: the Hatfield Article 4 direction covers HMO conversions in Hatfield. No additional or selective licensing scheme is in force. An Overview and Scrutiny task and finish group on HMOs (report to the committee on 7 January 2026, considered by Cabinet on 3 March 2026) recommended that officers gather further evidence on smaller HMOs to support a possible local consultation on licensing them, with progress to be reported to the committee in summer 2026. The report estimated 518 licensed HMOs in the borough and a similar number of non-licensed HMOs.

    Sources

Article 4 for house shares

Welwyn Hatfield 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
Hatfield town only, as edged red on the plan attached to the direction (the built-up area of Hatfield, including areas such as South Hatfield, Oxlease, Roe Green, Birchwood, The Ryde, Old Hatfield, Ellenbrook and Hatfield Garden Village). Welwyn Garden City and the rest of the borough are not covered. The direction was made on 11 January 2011 under Article 4(1) and confirmed on 14 April 2011; it states that, if confirmed, it 'will come into effect on 12 January 2012'. It removes the C3 to C4 permitted development right. Planning applications for HMOs are assessed against the council's HMO Supplementary Planning Document.
Takes effect
12 Jan 2012

Council source

Civil penalty policy

Not yet confirmed

We have not found Welwyn Hatfield's civil penalty policy yet.

Consultations

We found no consultations when we researched Welwyn Hatfield.

Not yet confirmed

We could not settle these points when we researched Welwyn Hatfield on 14 October 2026. Check them with the council before you rely on them.

  • Not yet confirmed

    The standalone civil penalty policy is not published. Cabinet approved a Renters' Rights Act enforcement policy addendum on 2 July 2026 and the report describes a move to the statutory penalty matrix, but the civil penalty policy text itself could not be read, so whether it is fully updated for the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is left unconfirmed.

  • Not yet confirmed

    The HMO task and finish group asked officers to gather evidence on smaller HMOs and report back to Overview and Scrutiny in summer 2026. No follow-up report, proposal or consultation on additional licensing was found by 14 October 2026.

  • Not yet confirmed

    The Hatfield Article 4 boundary is shown only on the scanned 2011 plan; the street-level boundary was not checked. The council's planning pages say the Hatfield Article 4 direction is still in place.

  • Not yet confirmed

    No published HMO licence conditions document was found.

Landlord register

The national landlord register is separate from licensing. Welwyn Hatfield is in East of England, where registration is planned from 15 January 2027 to 14 April 2027. The regulations are still in draft. Read about the register