Nottingham licensing: three overlapping schemes, one of them citywide
Nottingham is one of the most heavily licensed cities in England, and it runs three schemes at once. Selective licensing covers a designated area of the city - roughly 30,000 privately rented homes - under a second scheme that started on 1 December 2023. Additional HMO licensing went citywide in January 2024. Mandatory HMO licensing applies nationally. Almost every private let in Nottingham falls under one of the three.
Work out which of the three applies
Selective licensing covers properties let to one occupant, to a single household such as a family, or to two unrelated individuals - provided the property is inside the designated area. If there are three or more unrelated people forming two or more households sharing facilities, you're into additional licensing instead, and that one is citywide with no map to check. Five or more occupants in two or more households means the national mandatory HMO licence. A property only needs one of the three, but working out which is not optional.
Renewal is on you
Nottingham's second selective scheme replaced an earlier one, and licences from the first scheme expire on their own dates rather than rolling over. The council's guidance is that you reapply once your licence expires - it does not renew itself, and letting an unlicensed property is an offence from the day the licence runs out, not from the day someone notices. Fees are also reviewed periodically, so budget from the current published schedule rather than what you paid last time.
The national duties don't change
Whichever scheme catches you - or if somehow none does - annual gas safety, a five-yearly EICR, a valid EPC, deposit protection within 30 days, Right to Rent checks, working smoke and CO alarms and the Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet all still apply to every Nottingham tenancy.
Verify the designated area and your property's position via Nottingham City Council's MyProperty checker and its selective/additional licensing pages. Illustrative guide - schemes 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): Designated area (~30,000 homes). 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.