East Cambridgeshire: district licensing, with the fee published only in committee papers
East Cambridgeshire District Council is the housing and licensing authority, not Cambridgeshire County Council. The district licenses HMOs with five or more occupants, but its customer-facing licensing page publishes no fee, no licence term and no online register, so the fee has to be confirmed with the team before applying.
Get the council right: the district licenses, the county does not
East Cambridgeshire is a two-tier area. Cambridgeshire County Council handles county services, while East Cambridgeshire District Council is the housing and licensing authority, so the HMO licence, housing standards work and landlord enforcement all sit with the district at The Grange, Nutholt Lane, Ely CB7 4EE. A landlord who searches for a Cambridgeshire HMO licence risks landing on county or neighbouring district pages. The district's own test is five or more persons forming two or more households who share basic amenities such as a bathroom or kitchen, and it applies regardless of how many floors the property has. Minimum room sizes are enforced at 6.51 sq m for a single room and 10.22 sq m for a double.
The fee is not on the licensing page
The licensing page says only that a fee is payable. The last formally reported figure comes from the council's own review of HMO licensing fees, which states that the current fee level for any HMO application, new or renewal, is £367.00 and proposes a revised structure with a lower renewal fee. Because no figure appears on the customer-facing page and the structure has been under review, the £367.00 is UNVERIFIED - could not confirm on council website as a current charge and no fee year is attached to it. Treat it as the last reported figure, and confirm the amount and its fee year with the Environmental Health team before applying.
Penalties, and what happens if a licence is refused
Failing to apply for a licence for a licensable property, or allowing a property to be occupied by more people than the licence permits, can lead to a summary conviction with an unlimited fine. Breaching licence conditions carries a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. A tenant in a property that should have been licensed but was not can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for a rent repayment order covering up to 12 months of rent, and the council can reclaim housing benefit paid during the unlicensed period. If a licence is refused, the council can impose an Interim Management Order lasting a year, followed by a Final Management Order of up to five years. Temporary Exemption Notices last a maximum of three months, and a second can be issued.
Whether East Cambridgeshire operates selective or additional licensing is UNVERIFIED - could not confirm on council website. The HMO licensing page and the licensing hub make no reference to any Part 3 designation, live, expired or proposed, which is not proof there is none. Ask the council whether any designation applies to the postcode. The same applies to planning: no Article 4 direction affecting HMO conversions was found, and permitted development from Use Class C3 to C4 is not addressed on the planning pages reached, so check with planning rather than assuming either way. East Cambridgeshire also sits inside the Cambridgeshire local government reorganisation, so confirm that any published route is still the live one before relying on it.
Verify current designations via East Cambridgeshire District Council's HMO licensing information page and its licensing and permits section. 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): UNVERIFIED - no designation found. 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.