Barking and Dagenham: licensing is back, in three stages
Barking and Dagenham's previous selective licensing scheme ended in summer 2024, leaving a gap that has now closed. Additional HMO licensing came into effect on 9 January 2025, and a new selective licensing scheme followed on 6 April 2025 covering three designated areas of the borough. Both run for five years. If you paused your licensing habits during the gap, they need restarting.
Three schemes, three different tests
Mandatory HMO licensing applies where five or more people from two or more households share. The additional scheme, effective 9 January 2025, covers HMOs occupied by three or four people in two or more households. The selective scheme, effective 6 April 2025, covers properties occupied by a single household within its designated areas. Work out which one applies before you apply - the council operates all three concurrently and they don't overlap.
Check your address against the designation, not a ward list
The selective scheme covers three targeted designation areas rather than the whole borough, and the boundaries are set out in the council's published designation notice rather than a simple ward list. Check your specific address against the council's current guidance before assuming you're outside it - the previous scheme's coverage is not a reliable guide to the new one.
Purpose-built flats can be caught by selective
A useful quirk: purpose-built flats in blocks of three or more self-contained flats, and certain section 257 buildings, are exempt from mandatory HMO licensing - but that exemption doesn't put them outside the selective scheme. Landlords of converted or purpose-built blocks in the designated areas should check each dwelling individually rather than treating the building as one unit.
The gap didn't reset the national duties
Whatever happened to licensing between summer 2024 and spring 2025, annual gas safety, five-yearly EICRs, valid EPCs, 30-day deposit protection, Right to Rent checks, working alarms and the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet all applied throughout. A licence application is usually where a lapsed certificate gets discovered.
Verify the designated areas, fees and application route via Barking and Dagenham's property licensing pages and its published designation notices. Illustrative guide - designations and fees 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 (ordinary lets): 3 designated areas, from 6 Apr 2025. 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.