LetLens / Licensing by council / Nottingham
Landlord licensing in Nottingham
Mandatory HMO licensing applies across England, so a property in Nottingham let to five or more people forming two or more households, who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet, needs a licence. Nottingham also runs additional HMO licensing and selective licensing, which can bring smaller HMOs, or every private rental, into licensing.
The licence you need turns on who lives in the property. Find the line that describes your let.
- Required by national lawThe same in all 296 English councils. Not a Nottingham decision.
Your propertyLet to 5 or more people forming 2 or more households who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet
You needMandatory HMO licence In force England-wide
It costs£1,607 for a 5-bedroom HMO£1607 base + £29/bedroom over 9
WhereEverywhere in Nottingham, as everywhere in England. Scope, fee schedule and source
- What Nottingham requires on topSchemes this council chose to run, and what differs from the council next door.
Your propertyA smaller shared house the national scheme does not reach, typically 3 or 4 sharers forming 2 or more households
You needAdditional HMO licence In force
It costs£1,607 for a 4-bedroom HMO£1607 base + £29/bedroom over 9
WhereEverywhere in Nottingham. Scope, fee schedule and source
Your propertyLet privately inside a designated area, whether or not it is an HMO
You needSelective licence In force
It costs£950, the same for a rental of any size
WhereDesignated area (postcode-resolved), not the whole of Nottingham. Scope, fee schedule and source
- Planning permission, a separate questionNot licensing. Whether you may create an HMO at all, decided by the council’s planning side.
Your planConverting a house (use class C3) into a small HMO (use class C4)
You needPlanning permission In force
WhereInside the designated area: the whole council area. There is no part of the council outside it. The direction, its dates and its boundary
Each fee is for the example property named on its own line, from the council’s published schedule. Other sizes are priced separately; the full schedules, discounts and surcharges are below.
Or open NG7 5AJ, a postcode near the centre of Nottingham, to see what a full report looks like.
Each scheme in detail, and the evidence behind it
Which properties each scheme catches in Nottingham, in the council’s own words, with the designations in force, the whole published fee schedule and the source for every figure. The three regimes can stack: a property can need a licence under one and still be caught by another.
Mandatory HMO licensing In force England-wide
Fee, 5-bed HMO£1,607£1607 base + £29/bedroom over 9
- Where it applies
- National scheme
- Which properties
- HMO occupied by 5 or more persons forming 2 or more separate households who share facilities (kitchen, bathroom or toilet), regardless of the number of storeys (mandatory HMO licensing under s55/s254 Housing Act 2004, Prescribed Descriptions Order 2018)
The published fee schedule
- Base fee
- £1,607
- Base fee, paid in two parts
- £697 on application, then £910 when the licence is granted
- Size charge
- £29 per bedroom above 9
- Licence term
- Up to 5 years
- Fee schedule dated
- 1 April 2026
Discounts
- Accredited landlord (Nottingham Rental Standard: Unipol / DASH / ANUK): £397
Other charges, all 10
- Extra bedroom fee (per bedroom where the HMO has 10 or more bedrooms): £29
- Less compliant landlord Part B (2nd payment): £1,483
- Less compliant landlord total: £2,180
- General admin fee (extra chasing correspondence / changes to application before determination): £47
- Extra copy documentation (1-5 documents): £34
- Extra copy documentation (6-10 documents): £67
- Extra copy documentation (11-30 documents): £100
- Missed inspection fee: £57
- Paper application form request: £39
- Paper application form processing: £74
Additional HMO licensing In force
Fee, 4-bed HMO£1,607£1607 base + £29/bedroom over 9
- Where it applies
- Council-wide
- Which properties
- Any non-mandatory licensable HMO occupied by 3 or more persons forming 2 or more separate households (meeting the s254 HA 2004 tests) that is NOT required to be licensed under mandatory licensing; excludes Section 257 HMOs (converted blocks of flats) and student accommodation managed under an ANUK-administered Approved Code of Practice
- Designations in force
- Nottingham City Council Designation for an Area for Additional Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation 2024
- Designation period
- 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028
The published fee schedule
- Base fee
- £1,607
- Base fee, paid in two parts
- £697 on application, then £910 when the licence is granted
- Size charge
- £29 per bedroom above 9
- Licence term
- Up to 5 years
- Fee schedule dated
- 1 April 2026
Discounts
- Accredited landlord (Nottingham Rental Standard: Unipol / DASH / ANUK): £397
Other charges, all 10
- Extra bedroom fee (per bedroom where the HMO has 10 or more bedrooms): £29
- Less compliant landlord Part B (2nd payment): £1,483
- Less compliant landlord total: £2,180
- General admin fee (extra chasing correspondence / changes to application before determination): £47
- Extra copy documentation (1-5 documents): £34
- Extra copy documentation (6-10 documents): £67
- Extra copy documentation (11-30 documents): £100
- Missed inspection fee: £57
- Paper application form request: £39
- Paper application form processing: £74
Selective licensing In force
Licence fee, any size£950
- Where it applies
- Designated area (postcode-resolved)
- Which properties
- Any privately rented house/dwelling let or occupied under a tenancy or licence within the designated area, unless it is an HMO required to be licensed under Part 2, is let by a registered social landlord / registered provider, is subject to an Interim/Final Management Order, has a temporary exemption, or is otherwise exempt. Estimated to cover over 30,000 privately rented homes.
- Designations in force
- Nottingham City Council Designation of an Area for Selective Licensing 2023
- Designation period
- 1 December 2023 to 30 November 2028
The published fee schedule
- Fee
- £950
- Paid in two parts
- £290 on application, then £660 when the licence is granted
- Licence term
- Up to 5 years
- Fee schedule dated
- 1 April 2026
Discounts
- Accredited landlord (Nottingham Rental Standard: Unipol / DASH / ANUK): £191
Other charges, all 19
- Less compliant landlord Part B (2nd payment): £1,028
- Less compliant landlord total: £1,318
- Block licence base fee (accredited): Part A: £470
- Block licence base fee (accredited): Part B: £1,403
- Block licence base fee (accredited): total: £1,873
- Block licence base fee (standard): Part B: £2,371
- Block licence base fee (standard): total: £2,841
- Block licence base fee (less compliant): Part B: £2,833
- Block licence base fee (less compliant): total: £3,303
- Block licence fee per dwelling in the building (accredited): Part A: £160
- Block licence fee per dwelling in the building (accredited): Part B: £384
- Block licence fee per dwelling in the building (accredited): total: £544
- Block licence fee per dwelling in the building (standard): Part B: £400
- Block licence fee per dwelling in the building (standard): total: £560
- Block licence fee per dwelling in the building (less compliant): Part B: £405
- Block licence fee per dwelling in the building (less compliant): total: £565
- Paper application form processing: £74
- Paper application form request: £39
- Paper application total posting/processing: £113
Article 4 and HMO planning permission in Nottingham In force
An HMO Article 4 direction is in force in Nottingham covering the whole council area, so the permitted-development right to convert a house (C3) into a small HMO (C4) has been removed and planning permission is needed there. Every one of Nottingham's 6,789 postcodes is inside a designated area.
HMO Article 4 direction, the whole council area
- Area
- the whole council area
- Right removed
- C3 to C4 (small HMO)
- In force from
- 11 March 2012
A licence is not planning permission
These are two separate consents from two separate parts of the council, and getting one does not give you the other. A licensing team can grant an HMO licence for a property that needed planning permission and never got it.
Where the permission was needed and is missing, the usual consequence lands on the licence. Councils commonly grant a short licence, often twelve months rather than the full term, to give the owner time to apply. If permission is not applied for, is refused, or an appeal fails, the council will generally refuse to extend and let the licence expire, and will generally refuse a fresh application outright once permission has been finally refused. At that point the property cannot lawfully be let as an HMO at all.
This is council practice rather than a statutory rule, and it varies, so confirm it with Nottingham before you rely on it. Nottingham City Council publishes its version explicitly and is quoted here as a worked example of the approach.
The research note behind this verdict
What happens if you let without a licence
Letting or managing an unlicensed property that needs a licence is a criminal offence, under section 72 of the Housing Act 2004 for an HMO and section 95 for a property caught by selective licensing. A council can prosecute, or impose a civil penalty instead. For conduct on or after 1 May 2026 that penalty can be up to £40,000 per offence, raised from £30,000 by the Financial Penalties (Housing Offences and Breach of Banning Orders) Regulations 2026. Tenants and the council can also apply for a rent repayment order, which for conduct from the same date can claw back up to two years of rent, up from one, under section 103 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
Both of those maxima apply only to conduct on or after 1 May 2026. Earlier conduct is still judged against the old £30,000 and twelve-month limits. Each breach is normally penalised separately, so an unlicensed portfolio in Nottingham multiplies the exposure rather than capping it.
The letting market in Nottingham
Licensing is only one side of the sum. These are medians from real listings we have collected, with the number of listings behind each one, because a median over a handful of adverts is a different claim from a median over hundreds.
- Median room rent£542 pcmFrom 717 room listings in Nottingham.
- Median whole-property rent£1,011 pcmFrom 270 whole-property listings.
- Typical 4-bed rent£1,498 pcmThe comparison a room-by-room let is measured against.
- HMO income premium+81%Five rooms let individually against one four-bedroom whole-property let, before the extra cost, licensing and voids that come with an HMO.
- Median sale price£200,000Across 653 sales in 2026, all property types, HM Land Registry.
- Gross yield, whole let6.1%Median whole-property rent for a year against the median sale price. Before voids, management, repairs, licensing and finance, all of which a real return has to carry.
- Gross yield, 5-room HMO16.3%Five rooms at the median room rent against the same median sale price. The higher figure is what pays for the licence, the extra management and the higher voids, rather than being profit on top of them.
- Typical household income£32,533Mean of net small-area median incomes around the council's main listing areas, not a council-wide median.
- Postcodes with flood exposure11.4%776 of 6,789 indexed postcodes.
- Postcodes in Flood Zone 3518 (7.6%)The Environment Agency's highest-probability zone. Lenders and insurers ask about this one by name, and it is a subset of the exposure above.
Room rent by outcode
Room rent varies by £85 a month across Nottingham’s outcodes, so the council-wide median above is a starting point rather than the answer for a particular street.
| Outcode | Median room rent | Room listings | Check a postcode |
|---|---|---|---|
| NG3 | £595 pcm | 102 | Check NG3 |
| NG5 | £550 pcm | 104 | Check NG5 |
| NG7 | £533 pcm | 387 | Check NG7 |
| NG11 | £515 pcm | 42 | Check NG11 |
| NG8 | £510 pcm | 54 | Check NG8 |
Postcode districts in Nottingham
Licensing, Article 4 and the fee all turn on the exact address, because a designated area rarely follows the council boundary. LetLens holds 6,789 Nottingham postcodes. Open one of its postcode districts to see the verdict, the local rent evidence and the investment model.
Common questions
Do I need an HMO licence in Nottingham?
Mandatory HMO licensing applies across England, so a property in Nottingham let to five or more people forming two or more households, who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet, needs a licence. Nottingham also runs additional HMO licensing and selective licensing, which can bring smaller HMOs, or every private rental, into licensing. Additional HMO licensing applies across the whole council. Selective licensing covers Designated area (postcode-resolved).
How much does an HMO licence cost in Nottingham?
£1,607 for a five-bedroom, five-person HMO under the mandatory scheme, from the council's published fee schedule. Fee basis: £1607 base + £29/bedroom over 9. Larger or smaller properties, and any additional or selective scheme, are priced separately.
Is there an Article 4 direction in Nottingham?
An HMO Article 4 direction is in force in Nottingham covering the whole council area, so the permitted-development right to convert a house (C3) into a small HMO (C4) has been removed and planning permission is needed there. Every one of Nottingham's 6,789 postcodes is inside a designated area.
What is the penalty for letting an unlicensed property in Nottingham?
Letting or managing a property that needs a licence without one is a criminal offence under the Housing Act 2004. The council can prosecute or impose a civil penalty, which for conduct on or after 1 May 2026 can be up to £40,000 per offence, raised from £30,000 by the Financial Penalties (Housing Offences and Breach of Banning Orders) Regulations 2026. Tenants or the council can also seek a rent repayment order covering up to two years of rent for conduct from that date, up from one year, under section 103 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025. Each breach is normally penalised separately. Indicative only, not legal advice.
Do I need planning permission for an HMO in Nottingham?
Where an Article 4 direction applies, yes: it removes the permitted-development right to change a house (use class C3) into a small HMO (use class C4), so that change needs a planning application. An HMO for seven or more residents needs permission anywhere, Article 4 or not. Planning is separate from licensing, and a licence does not give you permission. Where permission was needed and not obtained, councils commonly grant a licence for about twelve months rather than the full term, and generally refuse to extend it if permission is not then granted, which leaves the property unable to be let as an HMO. Practice varies by council, so confirm it with Nottingham.
Can I convert a house into a small HMO in Nottingham without planning permission?
Not inside the Article 4 area. The direction removes the permitted-development right, so a change of use from C3 to C4 needs a planning application. The direction covers the whole of Nottingham, so there is no part of the council where the right still applies.
About Nottingham
Nottingham is a local housing authority in East Midlands, with a population of about 337,000 and 6,789 live postcodes indexed by LetLens. It is the licensing authority for every private rented property inside its boundary, and the local planning authority that decides whether an Article 4 direction applies.
Nearby councils
Licensing stops at the council boundary, so a street on the other side of it can carry a different scheme and a different fee.