HMO and selective licensing in Southwark Council

Three kinds of property licence can apply to a privately rented home in Southwark. A borough-wide additional HMO scheme, in force from 1 March 2022 until 1 March 2027, covers smaller shared houses — HMOs occupied by three or more people from two or more households that are not large enough to need a mandatory licence — and certain converted blocks of flats, so a smaller HMO can need a licence anywhere in the borough. Selective licensing covers ordinary privately rented homes let to a single household in designated wards: Champion Hill, Newington, Faraday, Goose Green and St Giles from 1 March 2022 until 1 March 2027, and a larger scheme running from 1 November 2023 until 31 October 2028 across fourteen further wards, including Camberwell Green, Peckham, Old Kent Road, Rotherhithe and Surrey Docks.^[10]

Whatever Southwark designates locally, a large HMO shared by at least five people from more than one household needs a mandatory licence anywhere in England. The property licensing guide sets out the national tests that sit behind every local scheme.^[19]

Southwark publishes the property licences it has granted in an online register you can search by postcode or address. Treat a blank result as a prompt to ask, not an answer: a licence application still being processed, or a temporary exemption, will not always appear, so confirm the position with the council in writing and hold on to whatever it tells you.^[16]

1. Open the official register. Search Southwark's property licence register (opens in new tab)^[16]
2. Search the exact address. Save a dated screenshot or download of the result. Councils must keep a register of licences, temporary exemption notices and management orders and make it available for inspection.^[20]
3. Ask about applications and exemptions. A missing entry is a reason to investigate, not proof of an offence, so ask whether a licence, application or exemption covered the dates you rented there.^[23]
4. Report or ask in writing. Report an unlicensed home to Southwark (opens in new tab). Report a home you think should be licensed to Southwark through its report-an-unlicensed-property route.^[18] Ask for a reference number and keep the reply.

A Southwark licence carries local conditions on top of the national prescribed ones: fire precautions in line with the Fire Safety Order and the council's HMO standards, electrical safety and appliance testing, minimum energy efficiency, and fire-safe furnishings in the parts the landlord provides. They let a renter separate two questions — whether the property needed a licence at the time, and whether it met those standards once licensed.^[17]

• National conditions are the floor. Every licence carries the prescribed conditions on gas, electrics, alarms, tenancy terms and waste, and can last up to five years; the property licensing guide lists them in full.^[21]
• Compare the licence with reality. The register entry or licence may identify the manager, the permitted occupancy and property-specific conditions. Check those details against how the home is actually occupied and managed.
• Keep separate evidence of hazards. A licence does not establish continuing compliance. Report disrepair or an immediate safety risk separately, and keep photographs, messages and certificates.

In Southwark an unlicensed home is only an offence if the property genuinely needed a licence at the time. With a borough-wide HMO scheme and selective licensing spread across many wards that started on different dates, the first thing to pin down is which designation — if any — was running at your address while you lived there.^[10][16]

1. Confirm the scheme and dates. Match the address, occupancy and rental period to the designation in force at the time.
2. Ask the council in writing. Report an unlicensed home to Southwark (opens in new tab). Ask Southwark Council whether an effective application or temporary exemption existed and when it took effect.^[18]
3. Check the legal position. An application, an exemption, a reasonable excuse or the identity of the person legally responsible (the "person managing or controlling" the property) can all affect whether an offence is proved.^[23]
4. Preserve the evidence. Keep the tenancy, rent payments, proof of occupation, dated searches and council correspondence.

For a licensing offence committed on or after the 1 May 2026 rule change, a tenant can ask the First-tier Tribunal for up to two years' rent, and normally has two years from the offence to apply. The tenant must prove the offence beyond reasonable doubt, and the tribunal decides any award from the statutory factors and evidence; recovery is never automatic.^[24] Older offence periods may be governed by earlier limits. Free housing advice is available from Shelter and Citizens Advice, and local law centres can help with tribunal cases.