Appendix 4: Proposed fees for new HMO licence applications from the start date of the new Additional HMO licensing scheme

What is an HMO?

A property is a house in multiple occupation (HMO) if both of the following apply:

· at least 3 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household

· there are shared facilities e.g. toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities

Under the proposed Additional HMO Licensing Scheme the threshold for licensing a HMO in the targeted wards of the city will be 3 tenants or more living there forming more than 1 household. In the remainder of the city Mandatory HMO licensing will be 5 or more tenants forming more than 1 household

There are two types of HMO licence applications with two different licensing fee structures

· A new HMO licence application, which is when a licence holder applies for the first time to have a HMO licence for a specific property

· A Renewal HMO licence application, when a licence holder applies for a subsequent and successive HMO licence when the licence period comes to the end.

In both cases a licence normally lasts 5 years

The licence fee structure reflects the amount of work involved to process the application including the visit(s) to ensure that it is compliant with Part 2 matters of the Housing Act 2004.

In line with recent court decisions – there are 2 stages to fee payment:

• your first stage fee payment will need to accompany your licence application so that we can carry out necessary checks to enable the Notice of Intention to Issue the licence
• your second stage fee payment will need to be paid when your application is complete and at the granting of the final licence. The applicant will be notified when the final licence is issued.

Band	Number of occupants	First stage fee (£)	Second stage fee (£)	Total fee (£)
A	Up to 6 occupants	£717	£478	1195
B	7 to 9 occupants	£837	£558	1395
C	10 to 14 occupants	£915	£610	1525
D	15 or more occupants	£1029	£686	1715

Fees for HMO licence renewals

Licence holders renewing a licence for the same property will be charged a 'renewal fee', which is lower than the full HMO application licence fee (provided we receive your application in time).

If we receive an incomplete or late application, we'll charge the full fee (as for an initial)

Reductions

• There's a reduction of £75 to the second stage fee if you've already attended a recognised training course

· Where a registered ‘not for profit’ charity or an individual housing provider, is assisting the council by offering permanent accommodation to meet our homelessness duties, no fee will be payable. An assessment of the organisation will then be carried out and if appropriate the Council will determine the application and issue a licence without requiring any fee. Each case will be considered on its merits based on the type of individual or organisation submitting the application and the removal of the fee requirement will only be applied to the licence for the house being provided for homelessness purposes.  However, all standards and conditions would still need to be met by the housing provider