House in multiple occupancy licence fees

Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) Fee Review 2024

1. Scope

This sets out the fee structure to come into force on 1 April 2025 for the processing of HMO Licence applications for:

• new application
• renewal
• variation, and
• revocation.

2. Legislation

West Suffolk Council (‘the council’) has a statutory duty to administer and enforce a licensing scheme for mandatory licensable HMO’s as defined under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004. West Suffolk also has discretionary powers to implement Additional Licensing Scheme for other HMO’s and Selective Licencing Scheme for properties within the Private Rented Sector.

The council has not sought to adopt additional or selective licensing and as such only those properties that are occupied by five or more persons that do not form a single household would require a licence.

Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004 allows the local housing authority to charge a fee for the licensing of HMO’s to cover the actual costs of delivering the scheme. West Suffolk Council has exercised its powers to charge a licence fee under Section 63(3) and (7) of the Housing Act 2004.

Following a legal precedent set by Hemming v Westminster and Gaskin v Richmond upon Thames LBC, the council is required to request fees in two stages. With regard to West Suffolk HMO fees these will be broken down as:

• Stage 1 must be paid when an application is received. The Stage 1 fee can only cover costs associated with the application process. West Suffolk has calculated the average costs with processing the application up to and including the issue to grant a licence (or refuse to grant a licence).
• Stage 2 must be paid when a determination is made to intend to grant a licence, that is, where a property is deemed suitable to be licenced but before a licence is issued. The Stage 2 fee covers ongoing enforcement costs related to monitoring and enforcing compliance.

An application is not duly made until both fees are paid. As such a licence shall not be issued until the Stage 2 fee is paid.

3. Determining the fee structure

In calculating the fee structure the council has had regard to the provisions of the Housing Act 2004 Sec 63 (7), which allows for ‘all costs incurred by the authority in carrying out their functions under this part.

The fee structure allows for reasonable costs and this includes administrative costs, officer time completed visits to the site (including travel), consultations, meetings, correspondence as well as monitoring and compliance inspections.

A cost has been determined against each task associated with issuing and enforcement of an HMO licence based on the 25-26 mid-point scale of the grade of officer undertaking the task and the average time taken.

4. The HMO fees have been calculated as outlined in the table below.

5. Refunds

Any refund will be at the discretion of the service manager, and is limited to:

• where a duplicate application has been made for a property, or
• where, on review of an application (at Stage 1), we decide that the property does not need a license at the time of application (for example, it falls under one of the exemptions).