Landlord licensing and compliance in East Devon
East Devon licenses houses in multiple occupation with five or more occupants, and charges by occupancy rather than a flat fee. No selective or additional HMO licensing designation could be found on the council's own pages, which is not the same as proving there is none. The HMO licensing page also has not kept up with its own dates.
What needs a licence, and what it costs
Mandatory HMO licensing covers properties occupied by five or more people forming two or more households who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet. Fees are charged by occupant numbers: £600 for up to five occupants and £800 for six or more on a new licence, and £500 or £700 to re-licence where there have been no material changes. Pre-application advice with an inspection is £150 per visit, and reminder letters are £60 each after the first free one. The fee page publishes no fee year, so which 1 April schedule those figures belong to is UNVERIFIED - could not confirm on council website. Confirm the current amount with the Private Sector Housing team before applying.
Term, register and standards
Licences run from one year up to five, decided by compliance, and they are not transferable, so a change of licence holder needs a fresh application and fee. Every licensable property needs its own licence. The public HMO register is published as a PDF, most recently dated 7 July 2026, backed by a separate temporary exemption register. The council applies shared Devon HMO space and amenity standards plus the LACORS fire safety guidance, with the Housing Health and Safety Rating System used to assess risk.
Enforcement and the Renters' Rights Act
Operating an unlicensed HMO carries an unlimited fine on conviction. The council's landlord guidance sets out the Renters' Rights Act 2025 position: civil penalties of up to £40,000, expanded rent repayment orders with a maximum doubling to 24 months' rent and repeat offenders paying the maximum, powers to require documents and enter premises, and the national private rented sector database, for which registration for Devon landlords starts on 15 August 2027 at £65 per property per year. A civil penalty matrix with figures for specific HMO offences is UNVERIFIED - only the headline £40,000 is published, and no prosecutions or rent repayment orders are listed.
Planning is a separate permission
Whether an Article 4 direction removing HMO permitted development rights applies in East Devon is UNVERIFIED - could not confirm on council website, as no HMO Article 4 page was found. Planning is a district function and a licence does not grant permission, so check the position for the address with the planning team rather than inferring it from the licensing pages.
Verify current designations via East Devon District Council's Licensing of houses in multiple occupation, HMO Register, Application fee and HMO Licence renewal pages. 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 page 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.