Coventry: no selective licensing, but every HMO needs a licence
Coventry decided not to progress selective licensing after its 2019 consultation, so ordinary family lets need no council licence here. Shared housing is the opposite story: city-wide additional HMO licensing has been in effect since 4 May 2020, extended by a designation running from 4 May 2025 to 2030. Every HMO in Coventry needs a licence - the only question is which scheme it falls under.
The additional scheme catches almost everything mandatory misses
Coventry's city-wide additional designation covers all HMOs not caught by mandatory licensing: HMOs with fewer than five occupants, HMOs with no shared amenities, flats in multiple occupation inside purpose-built blocks, section 257 conversions, and private-provider student cluster flats - where each cluster flat needs its own licence. Same process, same fees, same penalties as a mandatory licence. Two exemptions under the current designation: buildings of just two self-contained flats with no commercial premises above or below, and buildings with no shared common parts and no more than two storeys.
Licence length is worth money
Fees are charged in two stages - Stage 1 with the application, Stage 2 within fourteen days of the decision to issue - and Stage 2 varies with licence length. A five-year licence costs £944 in total; a one-year licence costs £1,571; and a higher-rate one-year licence, charged where a property has been unlicensed for more than twelve weeks, costs £2,241. Getting a five-year term rather than a one-year term is worth over £600 a licence, and Coventry's free accreditation scheme is explicitly linked to cheaper, longer-lasting licences.
Licences don't transfer when you sell
A Coventry HMO licence is personal to its holder. When ownership changes, the new owner submits a new application at the new-application fee, not a renewal. Stage 1 fees have been non-refundable for withdrawn applications since 1 April 2022, so a speculative application on a property you may not buy is money gone.
What happens if you don't licence
The council publishes its enforcement outcomes. Prosecution carries an unlimited fine plus the council's legal costs; a civil penalty of up to £30,000 is available as an alternative; the council can recover housing benefit paid over up to twelve unlicensed months and tenants can claim back their own rent for the same period. A finding that you're not a fit and proper person can affect your other licences too.
Verify current fees, designation and licence-length criteria via Coventry City Council's HMO licensing pages and its signed designation documents. Illustrative guide - fees and designations 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): No scheme - not progressed. 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.