The UK's first national HMO licensing scheme map

Today, we're pleased to publish the UK's first comprehensive map of HMO licensing schemes, covering every mandatory, additional, and selective licensing regime across the country.

Before now, this information has been scattered across 300+ council websites, each with different formats, terminology, and levels of detail. Discovery of whether property required a license meant hours of detective work through outdated PDFs and broken council links. For renters trying to verify if their landlord is operating legally, the process was nearly impossible.

Our new HMO licensing map consolidates this fragmented landscape into a single, interactive resource at https://data.remedylegal.ai/hmo-schemes

Why this matters

An estimated 182,554 HMO properties exist across England and Wales, and are home to millions of renters. A lack of accessible licensing information means tenants and advice organisations can't quickly and easily verify if homes meet the legal standards. Councils can sometimes struggle to keep up with enforcement, leaving rogue landlords to exploit this opacity.

The London Mayor's office created a map for the capital, which is a great start, but leaves the rest of the UK in the dark. While mandatory licensing applies nationwide to larger HMOs, councils also operate additional and selective licensing schemes in their areas. Our map combines all of the above, and ensure to include appropriate URLs and contact details where possible.

What's next

This is just the beginning. We're building tools that will let users search for specific addresses, check licensing status, and access a unified register of licensed properties. These features will integrate directly into the Remedy app at https://app.remedylegal.ai, putting tenant rights at everyone's fingertips.

We believe data transparency is just a start, and full data accessibility is the goal. We're helping renters understand their rights, enabling advice organisations to better support their clients, and creating transparency in a market that needs it.