Ealing: 14 selective wards, small-HMO licensing, and a live consultation
Ealing runs selective licensing across fourteen wards under two designations - three from 1 April 2022 and eleven more from 3 January 2023 - alongside additional HMO licensing for three- and four-occupant shares, also from April 2022. A consultation on a new five-year additional HMO scheme ran from 15 July to 24 September 2026, so the small-HMO position is actively changing.
The wards - and the boundary trap
From 1 April 2022: East Acton, Southall Broadway and Southall Green. From 3 January 2023: Acton Central, Dormers Wells, Greenford Broadway, Greenford Green, Hanger Hill, Hobbayne, Lady Margaret, North Greenford, Northolt Mandeville, Northolt West End, Perivale and South Acton. Critically, Ealing states these are pre-May 2022 ward boundaries. Ward names were reorganised since, so looking your address up against a current ward map can give you the wrong answer. Use the council's postcode checker instead.
Changing owner revokes the licence entirely
Ealing is stricter than most on this. Where the licence holder changes, the existing licence is revoked - not transferred - and the new holder must apply and pay in full. There are no refunds. If you're buying a licensed property in Ealing, the licence is worth nothing to you and the clock starts again from scratch.
Reduced-term licences punish late applications
Licences are generally five years, but a property that was let unlicensed gets a reduced term. If it was unlicensed for under three months, the licence runs five years minus the months it was unlicensed. Over three months and you can face a civil penalty and lose any fee discount as well. Usefully, a licence whose expiry falls beyond the end of a scheme remains valid until it expires - so the scheme ending doesn't invalidate your licence.
Section 257 buildings need their own licences
Ealing licences converted buildings of three or more self-contained flats that lack a Building Regulations completion certificate, and the individual flats within them need their own licences too. Owners of converted Victorian and Edwardian blocks - of which Ealing has many - should check each dwelling separately rather than treating the building as one.
Check your address on Ealing Council's private rented property licensing postcode checker and verify fees and dates on its landlord pages. 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): 14 wards, two designations. 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.