Two large licensing schemes go live in Birmingham

Landlords in Birmingham are urged to check if their property requires a licence, after two large licensing schemes commenced this week.

Though the selective licensing scheme and additional HMO licensing schemes both started on Monday 5th June, the council say it will start to enforce the new schemes from 4 September 2023, to give landlords time to apply for a licence if they need one. 

Selective licensing

Introduced on 5th June, the new licensing scheme affects 25 of Birmingham’s 69 wards, with licences costing around £700 each. The scheme to run for five years.  

Due to the large designation, the Council had to also seek approval for the scheme from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

If you’re a landlord in Birmingham, you can find out which wards the scheme affect here and apply for a selective licence here.

Borough-wide additional licensing 

Mandatory HMO licensing already applies to all large HMOs across England, but in some areas, Council’s also introduce additional licensing schemes, which apply to small HMOs.

This is the case in Birmingham, with the new additional HMO licensing scheme having started this week, on 5th June.

As this scheme applies to all small HMOs across all wards in the city of Birmingham, this means all HMOs in Birmingham must now have a licence, in order to be let out lawfully. 

As with the selective licensing scheme, it will run for five years. Apply for an additional HMO licence here.

NRLA licensing toolkit

The NRLA aims to respond to all property licensing consultations, and members can learn more about responding to consultations in our free Licensing Toolkit. Please see below for a list of current property licensing consultations. Keep up-to-date with schemes and consultations by using NRLA Licensing, a free member benefit, powered by our partner, Kamma Data.

•    Join your NRLA Midlands rep next week in Solihull on Monday 12th June for a catch-up. For more details about the venue and to register click here. Take a look at more local events taking place in Birmingham this month for landlords here, and find more information about our national Landlord Conference in Birmingham on 24th October here.