HMO licence plans for Tower Hamlets landlords: drawn to the council's room sizes
Tower Hamlets has designated the whole borough for additional licensing, so a shared house or flat with three or more tenants from two or more households needs a licence, not only the five-person houses the national rules catch. We draw the scaled plans and a room-by-room schedule against the council's own sleeping-room table, for a fixed £495.
Fixed fee from £495 · all prices
Prefer to talk it through?
Why a three-tenant flat in Tower Hamlets needs a licence
Most London landlords know the national line: five or more people in more than one household makes a large HMO. Tower Hamlets goes further. The council designated the whole borough for additional licensing from 1 April 2024, and the designation runs until 31 March 2029 unless it is revoked sooner.
The scheme covers privately let properties occupied by three or more people who form two or more households and share a bathroom, toilet or kitchen, where at least one tenant pays rent. A three-bed flat in Bow let room by room to three working adults is inside it. The council's page says plainly that the scheme covers flats, whatever the number of storeys.
HMO Licence Plans in Tower Hamlets
from £495
Every price is the full fixed fee you pay. No VAT is charged. Council application fees are paid to the council separately.
What you get
- Scaled plans of every floor with each room labelled by use
- A schedule of every bedroom's area against Tower Hamlets' sleeping-room sizes
- A flag on any room under 6.5 m2, which the council will not accept for sleeping
- Kitchens, bathrooms and WCs marked and counted against your tenants
- A PDF pack you upload with the application, in place of a hand sketch
- A short note of rooms that sit close to a threshold
- Check the scheme applies
Three or more people in two or more households sharing facilities brings the house in.
- Measure the house
Room areas on the plans come from a measured survey, not a guess.
- Draw and schedule
Each floor drawn to scale, then every bedroom set against the council's table.
- Fix what fails
A room under its minimum is raised now, while the layout can still change.
- Upload with the form
The PDF goes to the council's online portal with your Part A fee.
The room sizes the council publishes
The additional licensing page carries a sleeping-room table, and it is stricter than the national minimum in one respect: it ties the size to where the kitchen is. One occupier needs 8.5 m2 if the kitchen is a separate room and 13 m2 if the kitchen is in the same room. Two occupiers need 13 m2 and 18 m2 respectively.
Below all of that sits a hard floor. The council says no room under 6.5 m2 will be considered suitable for sleeping under any circumstances. That matters in Tower Hamlets, where a box room over a stair or a converted loft bedroom can fall on the wrong side of the line by a few centimetres. Our schedule shows each bedroom's measured area beside the figure it is tested against, so you see the problem before the council does.
The council says no room under 6.5 m2 will be considered suitable for sleeping under any circumstances.
What the application asks for
The council's HMO application form asks you to enclose a sketch plan showing the layout and position of each room with its measurements, on at least A4. A sketch is enough for the form. It is not enough if the sketch is wrong, which is why landlords with several rooms near a threshold pay for drawn plans.
The fees page also lists a floor plan preparation charge of £40 per hour if the council prepares the plans for you. If you would rather not leave that open-ended, a fixed-fee pack from us settles it up front, and the £495 total is the whole of our charge. The council's licence fee is separate and is paid to the council.
What the licence costs the council's way
For an additional HMO licence the council lists £1,323 for a new or renewal application made online, split into a Part A of £618 paid when you apply and a Part B of £787.50 paid before the licence is granted. A postal application is £1,550.50. Those figures are the council's, they can change, and they are paid on top of our fee.
Part A is not processed unless it is paid in full, and an application with documents missing can attract an administration charge, so complete plans are worth having ready before you start the form.
Measured first, then drawn
If you already hold a recent measured survey, send it and we draw from that. If not, a measured building survey is available at its own fixed price and the plans are drawn from the result. Tower Hamlets flats are often awkward shapes, with bay windows, chimney breasts and out-of-square party walls, so measuring beats scaling a floor plan from an estate agent's brochure.
If a bedroom fails and you need the layout changed to pass, our HMO conversion drawings cover the redesign. If the house is a flat conversion that needs planning, say so when you send the address.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| whole borough from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029 | Tower Hamlets Council, Additional licensing: (source wording: "designated the whole Borough of Tower Hamlets as an area for additional licensing"), in force from 1 April 2024 until 31 March 2029 unless revoked | www.towerhamlets.gov.uk |
| three or more people in two or more households | Tower Hamlets Council, Additional licensing: the scheme covers properties occupied by three or more people forming two or more households who share facilities, with at least one tenant paying rent | www.towerhamlets.gov.uk |
| 8.5 m2 or 13 m2 for one occupier | Tower Hamlets Council, Additional licensing sleeping-room table: one occupier 8.5 m2 with a separate kitchen or 13 m2 with the kitchen in the same room; two occupiers 13 m2 and 18 m2 | www.towerhamlets.gov.uk |
| 6.5 m2 | Tower Hamlets Council, Additional licensing: (source wording: "No rooms below 6.5m2 will be considered as suitable for sleeping rooms under any circumstances") | www.towerhamlets.gov.uk |
| sketch plan with room measurements on at least A4 | Tower Hamlets HMO application form: enclose (source wording: "A sketch plan for the property detailing the layout and position of each room with room size measurements (Minimum A4 size)") | www.towerhamlets.gov.uk |
| £1323 online | Tower Hamlets Council, Landlord licensing fees: additional HMO licence online new and renewal £1,323 (Part A £618, Part B £787.50); postal full payment £1,550.50 | www.towerhamlets.gov.uk |
| £40 per hour | Tower Hamlets Council, Landlord licensing fees: (source wording: "Preparation of floor plans (hourly charge)" £40 per hour for additional HMO licences) | www.towerhamlets.gov.uk |
Questions people ask
Does a flat with three sharers in Tower Hamlets need a licence?
What is the smallest room Tower Hamlets will accept for sleeping?
Can I just send a hand-drawn sketch?
Is the council's licence fee included in your price?
Photographs: Christopher Hilton (CC BY-SA 2.0); Tim Green from Bradford (CC BY 2.0).
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