HMO Licence Documents: What to File Before You Hit Submit

The portal is open, and the only “plan” is a phone photo of a kitchen-table sketch. Certificates live in three inboxes. Ownership and manager names sit in a chat. Open one folder per licensed house. Gather the pack the council will ask for: labelled floor plan, ownership, manager details, and current certificates as attachments. After grant, keep the issued licence, conditions, payment reference and end-date reminder in that clip.

Friday, one 5-bed HMO in Leeds. The council portal asks “upload floor plan”. Quinn has a phone photo of a kitchen-table sketch — rooms unlabelled, no sizes in m², no fire kit marked. Gas, EICR and EPC sit in three different sent-items. There is no ownership PDF and no manager name on a card. The risk is a pack returned as incomplete while keys are already out.

The problem is not that Quinn lacked a drawing. Several English councils accept a hand-drawn plan if it shows layout, room use and approximate dimensions. Leeds guidance says the plan does not have to be to scale, and may be hand drawn — without it the application is returned as incomplete. Typical mistake: treating an unlabelled phone photo as that plan.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

Why does one folder per house beat a Drive dump?

Open one folder named by this licensed house’s address. A house in multiple occupation — an HMO — is a let shared by people who are not one household. You need a separate licence for each HMO. Mixing two streets in one Drive dump is how the issued PDF goes missing.

Do file this house on its own clip. GOV.UK: a separate licence for each HMO, valid for a maximum of 5 years, renewed before it runs out. Housing Act 2004 section 68: one HMO per licence, and it may not be transferred.

How the house splits bills is a different clip. Open HMO bills included vs recharge when you set who pays. Headcount on the licence is a line on this card. A named extra occupier is a different permission file.

What belongs in the pack before you hit submit?

Gather the PDFs the same sitting you open the portal. Confirm the list on this council’s page. Typical items: floor plan with room use and sizes, ownership, manager details, current certificates as attachments. Do not start the form hoping to hunt files mid-upload.

Do file scans before you click submit. Croydon’s additional-scheme page (apply from Friday 25 September 2026) lists a floor plan with m² plus current EICR, gas and fire-safety tests. Lambeth wants Land Registry title from the last 28 days. Missing required documents may reject the application and retain the fee.

Kingston’s January 2026 form says keep a copy. BathNES tells you to keep the Idox confirmation with the DSFX number. For example, write that reference on this house’s log the same day. Do not treat the confirmation as clutter.

How do you make a floor plan the portal will take?

Label every room with its use. Write sizes in square metres. Mark stairs, doors, and fire kit if the council asks. A clear hand-drawn plan is often enough. A phone photo of an unlabelled kitchen-table sketch is not.

Do write m² on every habitable room. Leeds: no floor plan with room dimensions and the application is returned as incomplete. West Oxfordshire says the plan need not be perfectly to scale. BathNES accepts a clear hand-drawn plan and may reject architectural drawings.

Sleeping-room minima of 6.51 m², 10.22 m² and 4.64 m² belong on the plan and the issued conditions — SI 2018/616. Floor area under a 1.5 m ceiling is ignored. For example, Quinn needed m² on each bedroom, not a napkin photo. Save the uploaded file as plan-YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. Do not overwrite the plan you submitted.

Where do the certificates sit on this clip?

Clip current certificates into this house folder as attachments. Gas safety, the EICR — electrical installation condition report — and the EPC — energy performance certificate — are files you attach. Name whatever this portal lists. They sit here as PDFs.

Do file the current PDFs here. GOV.UK: send the council an updated gas safety certificate every year. How you store and renew the gas PDF lives on the gas safety certificate file. The EICR electrical safety report file and the EPC rental file own those renewals.

In practice, later licence conditions still point at the same clip. Lambeth may require you to produce those certificates under the conditions. Do not leave the only copy in a contractor’s sent-items. Do write the expiry dates onto this house’s log.

What to keep once the licence is issued?

File the issued licence, its conditions and any special conditions next to the plan. Keep the draft as well as the final if you were sent one. Highlight occupancy cap and any works-with-a-date. A later “produce your licence” email then has one clip.

Do file the draft and the final. Leeds sends a draft and waits 16 days before the final. Shelter Legal: mandatory conditions include an annual gas certificate to the authority, smoke alarms and written occupancy terms. Post-1 October 2018 licences must include minimum sleeping-room sizes.

Uttlesford’s February 2026 conditions, as an example, ask you to give occupants a copy of the licence and conditions within 14 days. Log that send if your schedule says so. GOV.UK: tell the council if you plan changes, or tenants’ circumstances change. A layout change needs a new plan and usually a variation. Sale: the licence does not transfer. Do not leave the conditions schedule only in email.

How do you log the payment and diary the end date?

Log the confirmation, the portal or Idox reference, and the payment refs. Incomplete is not pending. Diary the end date printed on the licence. Do not wait for a courtesy reminder.

Do write date, amount and reference on the same sitting. Leeds, accessed 17 September 2026: two-part fee £635 then £340, total £975. Renew no more than 3 months before expiry. That fee is this council’s log, not a national price list.

Lambeth aims to process a complete application in 12 weeks. Their courtesy reminder is not an excuse if it never arrives. Richmond, updated 4 June 2026: apply before expiry with all documents attached, or it is not complete. Pressure to wait for a council mail is not a diary.

Do set a reminder from the printed end date. Success bar: Friday opens one labelled clip — plan, certificates, issued licence plus conditions, payment reference, end-date reminder. Verify that checklist, then stop. Workflow: folder → pack → plan → submit/log → licence+conditions → end-date reminder. This licence end date is one row on the landlord compliance calendar. An IziRento workspace can hold those records.