Babergh: mandatory HMO licensing, with local details to confirm
Babergh's official HMO guidance confirms mandatory licensing for qualifying HMOs occupied by five or more people from more than one household. It displays a £578.55 fee and links to the application forms and register. No current selective or additional designation was confirmed in the council material reviewed, so address-level checks remain important.
The mandatory threshold
Babergh's HMO page says that a property occupied by five or more people from more than one household may need a mandatory HMO licence. The shared kitchen, bathroom or toilet test matters too. A three- or four-person share can still be an HMO without reaching the mandatory threshold, so keep the occupancy and household count current.
Do not turn a search result into a legal conclusion
No live selective or additional HMO designation was found in the official pages reviewed for this guide. That is a qualified search result, not proof that no designation exists or could apply to a particular address. Ask Babergh to confirm the licensing route before letting an ordinary property or a smaller HMO.
The published fee and application route
The council displays a £578.55 mandatory HMO fee and links to its application forms from the HMO guidance page. The same page links to the mandatory HMO register, which is the starting point for checking whether a property has a recorded licence. Confirm the current fee, instalment timing and licence term before submitting.
Keep enforcement details address-specific
Babergh publishes general housing-standards and enforcement information, but the material reviewed here does not safely confirm an HMO-specific civil-penalty maximum, Temporary Exemption Notice arrangement or rent repayment order wording. Do not rely on a guessed figure; retain evidence of the application, licence conditions and every safety certificate.
Planning is a separate check
The pages reviewed did not confirm a live HMO-specific Article 4 direction for Babergh. Planning permission, building control and licensing are separate questions, particularly where a family home is being converted into a shared house.
Verify current fees, application forms, the register and local scheme status via Babergh District Council's official houses-in-multiple-occupation and housing-standards pages. Illustrative guide - schemes, fees and policies change; general information, not legal advice.
Renewal tracked from expiry, reminders from 60 days out, proof of service to tenants logged. Knows the 2-month early-renewal rule that keeps your date fixed.
Five years goes quicker than you think. Kept remembers so you don't have to - including the 28-day duty to give tenants a copy.
Expiry tracked from the certificate details you confirm - band E is the current minimum for most domestic private lets unless exempt, and proposed changes are flagged only when they become law.
30-day protection window tracked from the day the money lands - not the tenancy date - with prescribed information logged.
Check dates and follow-up dates for time-limited permissions, stored against each tenant.
Smoke alarms every storey, CO alarms where required, checked and dated at the start of every tenancy.
A one-off duty for tenancies that existed on 1 May 2026. Who was served, when, and how - the £7,000 question, answered with a dated record.
Preparation and export support for the future official registration process - clearly marked as planned.
Selective licensing: Not confirmed on council website. See the local picture above - every other duty applies exactly as it does nationwide.
Add a postcode and Kept resolves the council, location and local context automatically.
Planned preparation and export support for the government's regional PRS Database rollout.