HMO Floor Plan London: What Landlords Need to Get Right
If you’re putting together an HMO licence application, the HMO floor plan is one of the first things your council will scrutinise. It’s also one of the easiest things to get wrong. Getting an HMO floor plan London councils will actually accept isn’t just about drawing the walls in the right place. It has to prove the property is safe. It has to show correct measurements. And it has to match the number of tenants you’re applying for. This guide walks through what trips landlords up most often.
London’s HMO Rules Aren’t the Same Everywhere
Getting an HMO licence in London can be confusing. Mostly, that’s because the rules vary from one borough to the next.
London has 32 boroughs, and each council sets its own licensing requirements. Some also run additional or selective licensing schemes on top of the national rules. That means a small HMO might need a licence in one borough but not in the one next door. What satisfies Barnet may not satisfy Newham.
This is exactly why a solid floor plan matters so much. It gives the council a clear, accurate picture of the property: room sizes, layout, facilities, and safety features. Nobody has to work from a rough sketch or guesswork.
What Actually Counts as an HMO?
Whether a property counts as an HMO isn’t just about how many people live there. The number of separate households matters too.
Councils generally treat a property as an HMO when people from more than one household share facilities such as a kitchen, bathroom, or toilet. The definition can also stretch to cover certain converted buildings and self-contained flats, depending on how they were converted and how people now occupy them.
If you’re not sure where your property sits, ring the council before you start the application. Asking first is far cheaper than paying for a survey and application you didn’t actually need.
The Paperwork Your Council Will Actually Ask For
Alongside the floor plan itself, a typical London HMO licence application needs a fairly full folder of supporting documents. In our experience, most councils want to see:
- A detailed HMO floor plan London
- Gas, Electrical (EICR) and PAT safety certificates
- Fire Risk Assessment
- Tenancy agreements
- Landlord and property details
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
- Fit and Proper Person test
- Insurance
Missing even one of these can hold an application up for weeks. Most councils won’t start processing a file until it’s complete. They generally won’t chase you for the gap either — that’s on you to catch. It’s worth pulling everything together before you submit, not after.
What Councils Actually Look for in an HMO Floor Plan London
A floor plan has to do more than show where the walls are — it’s a legal part of the application. Councils expect a clear layout with accurate room dimensions. They also want the location of smoke and heat detectors, fire doors, fire exits, emergency lighting, extinguishers, and kitchen appliances all marked up.
What they’re really checking is whether the property has enough safe escape routes and amenities for the number of tenants on your form. A tidy drawing won’t save a plan that fails on substance.
Minimum HMO Room Sizes: Get the Measurements Right
Room sizes cause more problems than almost anything else on an HMO application. It’s worth getting them right rather than working from memory.
The national mandatory licensing conditions have set the minimum sleeping room sizes since October 2018:
- 6.51 m² for one person aged 10 or over
- 10.22 m² for two people aged 10 or over sharing a room
- 4.64 m² for one child under 10
Nobody can legally use a room smaller than 4.64 m² as sleeping accommodation, for anyone. Landlords must also tell the council about any room that falls below that figure, even if it’s only being used as a study or for storage.
Don’t assume meeting the national minimum is the end of the story, either. Some London boroughs set their own, stricter standards on top of these. We’d always recommend checking the latest requirements for your specific borough before finalising anything.
A few measurement details catch people out:
- Surveyors measure the area wall to wall.
- Any part of a room where the ceiling drops below 1.5 metres doesn’t count toward the total. This matters a lot for loft conversions and sloped ceilings.
- Sleeping-room measurements exclude en-suite bathrooms. A 9 m² room with a 3 m² en-suite only counts as 6 m² of sleeping space.
- Built-in wardrobes, on the other hand, usually count toward the total.
These national figures set a floor, not a ceiling. Individual boroughs can and do impose tougher standards through their own licence conditions. So a room that technically clears the national 6.51 m² bar isn’t automatically safe from a query if your council runs a higher local threshold. Check with your borough before finalising layouts, particularly if you’re converting a property rather than working with an existing licensed HMO.
Getting the Measurements Right the First Time
This is really the whole reason a proper site survey beats sketching a plan from memory or old estate agent details. We measure every room individually. We note anywhere the ceiling height drops below the 1.5 m threshold. And we flag anything borderline against the minimum sizes before the plan ever reaches your council. Catching a room that’s a few centimetres short during the survey costs far less than finding out from a rejection letter three weeks into an application.
Other Compliance Work We Can Help With
A floor plan is rarely the only document a London HMO licence needs. We also handle Fire Risk Assessments, Asbestos Surveys, Legionella Risk Assessments, and EPC Certificates. That way, you’re not left chasing several different contractors for one application.
For more information, email info@smartpropertyservice.co.uk or call 01442 939006. If you’re not sure whether your property needs a licence at all, get in touch with your local council directly.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Apply
It’s worth working through a short list of questions with your council, or with us, before you commit to a survey date:
- Has your borough set room-size or amenity standards above the national minimum?
- Does the property fall under an additional or selective licensing designation? This can apply even below the usual five-tenant threshold.
- Are any rooms borderline on the 4.64 m² cut-off once sloped ceilings or built-in furniture are accounted for?
None of these questions are complicated to check. But they’re much easier to sort out before a survey than after a council has queried your submission. We’d rather flag a potential problem at the quote stage than let a landlord discover it three weeks into a licence application. So if anything about your property sounds like it might be borderline, mention it when you get in touch and we’ll factor it into the survey.
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