Does your rental property need a licence?
There is no national register to check. 90 of 296 English councils run their own selective or additional licensing schemes, many designated street by street, and they change constantly. Letting without a licence you needed carries a civil penalty of up to £40,000 per property.
Check your property
Free check of every live scheme covering that postcode. No sign-up.
Free scheme check · £7.99 for the full property report
£40,000
Max civil penalty per unlicensed property
24 months
Rent your tenant can reclaim
90
Councils with a live scheme
Unlimited
Fine on criminal prosecution
Why this is harder than it should be
Property licensing in the UK is a patchwork. On top of the England-wide rules for houses in multiple occupation, individual councils run their own selective and additional licensing schemes, often covering just a few streets or wards. There is no single national register a landlord can check, the schemes change constantly, and the boundaries can run down the middle of a road.
The result is that thousands of landlords let property that needs a licence without realising, and only find out when a council enforcement officer, or a tenant claiming their rent back, gets in touch.
PRSCheck has mapped every selective and additional licensing scheme in England and Wales to the exact council and area it covers, combined with the national HMO rules and the registration regimes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Enter a postcode and we show you instantly whether that area has a scheme. Answer two questions about the tenancy and the £7.99 report gives the property-specific verdict, what it costs, what you are exposed to, and exactly what to do next.
The reason this got more expensive in 2026
Your tenant no longer needs the council to act. They can apply to the First-tier Tribunal themselves for a Rent Repayment Order, the tribunal can make one without any conviction, and for offences committed on or after 1 May 2026 the order can be up to 24 months' rent rather than 12. The window to apply is now two years.
That is a real number on a real timescale, and it sits alongside the council's own civil penalty rather than instead of it. It is also entirely avoidable: a licence application that has been duly made is a complete answer, because no offence is committed while it is effective.
What a Rent Repayment Order would cost youGuides and reference
Landlord licensing explained
The three licence types, how to tell which yours needs, and how the four nations differ.
Selective licensing
Why an ordinary single-family let can need a licence, and how street-level designations work.
HMO licensing
The mandatory threshold, additional licensing, and the household test people get wrong.
Rent Repayment Orders: your exposure
What your tenant can claim if you get licensing wrong, how tribunals decide the amount, and the two defences.
Penalties for letting unlicensed
Civil penalties, prosecution, banning orders and the possession restrictions coming with the PRS Database.
Licensing by council
Every English and Welsh council, its live schemes, dates, fees and the official designation source.
Renting, not letting?
The same check tells a tenant whether their home should have been licensed, and what that is worth.
Go to the tenant side