If you’ve applied for or renewed an HMO licence, at some point an officer from the council will visit the property. Landlords who know what’s coming pass uneventfully. Landlords who don’t tend to collect a schedule of works. Here’s what the visit actually involves, based on what we see across Hounslow.
Before anyone visits: the paperwork
Licensing runs on documents. Expect to provide, or have ready:
- A current fire risk assessment (reviewed within the last 12 months is the safe standard)
- Fire alarm installation and servicing certificates, plus the weekly test log
- Emergency lighting test records, where lighting is fitted
- Gas safety certificate (CP12) and electrical installation report (EICR)
- PAT records for appliances you supply
If a document is missing, the precaution it evidences may as well be missing too. That’s the single most important thing to understand about licensing: an undocumented precaution barely counts.
What the officer physically checks
Every officer has their own routine, but the fire safety walk-through is consistent:
- The alarm system. Does the grade match what the licence conditions require for this size of property? Is there heat detection in the kitchen? Does the panel show faults? Then the question that catches people out: “can I see the test log?”
- The escape route. From every bedroom to the final exit without passing through a high-risk room, with the route clear of bikes, prams, mattresses and stored clutter. This check costs you nothing to pass and is embarrassingly easy to fail.
- Fire doors. Officers check the doors onto the escape route: self-closers connected and working, seals intact, gaps sensible, no wedges. A propped-open fire door in front of an inspector is a bad moment.
- Emergency lighting, where required, plus its test records.
- Room sizes and amenities. Beyond fire safety, mandatory licensing carries minimum bedroom sizes and standards for kitchens and bathrooms relative to the number of occupants.
Who needs a licence in the first place
Across England, mandatory HMO licensing applies where five or more people from two or more households share facilities. Councils can also run additional schemes covering smaller HMOs, and these change over time, so check the current position on Hounslow Council’s licensing pages rather than relying on what was true when you bought the property. If your property sits near the boundary of licensability, that’s worth a conversation before the council starts one with you.
How to make the visit boring
Boring is the goal. The pattern among landlords who sail through:
- A fire risk assessment that’s current and was done by someone competent
- The alarm system serviced, and the weekly tests actually happening and logged
- Fire doors inspected periodically, and after every change of tenants
- One folder (or logbook at the property) holding every certificate and record
That’s it. Nothing exotic. If the recurring visits are the part that slips, our scheduled testing rounds keep the logbook current automatically, and we can line up the risk assessment, fire door inspections and alarm servicing so everything is inspection-ready at once.
Got an inspection coming up? Request a free quote and tell us the date. We’ll survey the property, tell you what an officer will flag, and fix what needs fixing before they see it.