Private rented property licensing

Licence conditions

Your licence will have a schedule of conditions attached to it. These conditions must be complied with by the licence holder or managing agent within the time period stated on the full licence.

The conditions attached to the licence will depend on the occupation and type of licence that will need to be issued.

• HMO licenses issued under the Mandatory or Additional schemes ^{(PDF, 383kb)}
• Properties licensed under the selective licensing scheme in designation 1 ^{(PDF, 179kb)}
• Properties licensed under the selective licensing scheme in designation 2 ^{(PDF, 177kb)}
• Properties licensed under the selective licensing scheme in designation 3 ^{(PDF, 186kb)}
• Properties licensed under the selective licensing scheme in designation 4 ^{(PDF, 178kb)}

If we believe that the property has specific issues that need to be addressed, they'll either be dealt with separately to the licence or they'll be added as a licence condition.

If the council owns the freehold to your property, you must ask for permission before carrying out any alterations to the property.

Documents and external websites related to standard licensing conditions

Some of the conditions require you to comply with specific documents or refer you to other regulations:

• all licensed HMOs must comply with Southwark's HMO standards ^{(PDF, 137kb)}
• all licensed properties must be compliant with the LACORS fire guidance ^{(PDF, 878kb)}
• domestic private rented property: minimum energy efficiency (standard - landlord guidance) (GOV.UK website)
• Electrical Safety Standards and PAT testing (GOV.UK website)
• The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

The fundamental requirement under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is that the responsible person for a multi-occupied residential building (usually the landlord) must carry out and maintain a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment in communal areas to identify and provide adequate fire precautions and procedures to ensure the safety of all relevant persons. The Fire Safety Order does not apply to individual flats themselves. As in health and safety legislation, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has moved away from a prescriptive approach to an approach where the ownership of risk sits with the responsible person and those in control of premises.

The duties of the responsible person are:

• carry out a fire risk assessment
• consider who may be at risk from fire
• remove or reduce the risk from fire as reasonably practicable and provide general fire precautions to deal with any risk left
• take other measures to ensure there is protection if flammable or explosive materials are used or stored
• create a plan to deal with any emergency and in most cases keep a record of findings
• review findings when necessary

Page last updated: 01 October 2024