Devon: licensing sits with the district, not the county
Devon County Council does not run landlord licensing. Housing, environmental health and planning are district functions, so the licence application, the fee schedule and any selective or additional licensing designation all come from the district council that covers the property postcode. Two unitary councils inside the county boundary, Plymouth and Torbay, license in their own right.
County Hall does not licence landlords
Devon County Council handles adults' and children's services, highways and transport, waste disposal, libraries, public health and trading standards. Housing, environmental health, planning, waste collection, licensing and elections are second-tier functions, which means a landlord in Devon applies to the district, not to the county. There is no county-wide fee schedule, no county-wide designation, and no county HMO page: devon.gov.uk/housing returns a 404.
Which authority applies to your address
The eight district councils are Exeter, Mid Devon, East Devon, North Devon, Torridge, Teignbridge, West Devon and South Hams. Plymouth City Council and Torbay Council are unitary authorities sitting inside the county boundary, and they license in their own right. Properties a few streets apart can fall under different licensing authorities with different fees, different designations and a different planning position, so the postcode decides the answer, not the county.
Fees are set per district and change each 1 April, so budget from the district that covers the property and ask it for the current fee year. Two districts can share the same practical problem, a shared licensing team or a cross-boundary student market, and still publish completely different requirements. Planning is a district function too, so any Article 4 direction affecting small HMO conversions has to be checked district by district.
Local government reorganisation for Devon is unsettled. The county publishes a page describing the current two-tier structure being replaced by unitary authorities, and its own news pages currently conflict on whether a four-unitary model has been confirmed or is still under review. That reorganisation position is UNVERIFIED - could not confirm on council website. Until it is settled, licensing stays with the districts and the unitaries as described above.
Verify current designations via the district or unitary council covering the property address, starting from Devon County Council's pages on how local government in the county is currently structured and its list of neighbouring authorities. Illustrative guide - scheme boundaries and dates 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 - a district decision, not the county. 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.