HMO Conversions Acton

HMO conversion in Acton is now a planning job before it is a building job. Ealing's Article 4 directions have removed the permitted development right to turn a family house into a small HMO across the borough outside Perivale ward and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation area. Ealing's borough-wide additional HMO licensing then covers shared houses let to 3 or 4 people. We build the bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms and fire safety to the planning consent you obtain and the licence conditions that follow.

In Acton, a light HMO conversion for four to six tenants typically costs £40,000 to £75,000 in construction, or £90,000 to £150,000 with an en-suite to every bedroom (indicative London ranges, Mayfair Studio and LetCompliance, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Acton: we build the fire doors, detection, bathrooms and kitchens to the council's HMO standards, the landlord applies for the licence, and a registered electrician certifies the electrics.

Planning an Acton shared house under Ealing's Article 4

Turning an Acton house into a small shared house needs planning permission wherever Ealing's HMO Article 4 applies. Ealing's immediate Article 4 direction removing permitted development for small HMOs came into force on 30 October 2024, and the non-immediate direction followed on 14 November 2025. It covers the borough except Perivale ward and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation area, so check which side of that line your address sits before paying for drawings. An Acton address in W3 is worth confirming on the council's map rather than assumed.

Without the direction, Class L of the General Permitted Development Order would allow a change from C3 dwellinghouse to C4 HMO, though never a single house used as two separate C4 HMOs. The London Plan defines HMOs for three to six people as Class C4 and larger ones as Sui Generis, which always needed planning permission. You or your agent make the application, and we build the layout it approves, room by room.

Housing in Acton

Of the 25,660 homes the valuation list records in Acton, 29% were built before 1919, 17% between the wars and 55% since 1945; 77% are flats and 23% are houses.

What Ealing's HMO planning guidance asks of an Acton house

Ealing's HMO planning guidance is aimed at converting a C3 dwelling to a small C4 HMO of 3 to 6 occupants, and it sets the shared space first. The minimum combined living, dining and kitchen area is 25 sqm for 3 people rising to 31 sqm for 6 people, and bedrooms are expected to meet the Nationally Described Space Standard and London Plan housing design guidance. In a terraced Acton house that usually fixes the ground floor as shared space.

Ealing expects a Management Plan with the application, and in higher PTAL and CPZ areas it will normally expect the scheme to be car-free or car-lite. It assesses applications against the London Plan 2021, including Policy H9, and its Development Management DPD 2013, and it intends to bring forward an HMO supplementary planning document once its new Local Plan is adopted. Your designer works from the current guidance, and we build to the approved plans.

Mandatory and additional HMO licensing across Acton

Licensing runs alongside planning, and while the current designation lasts every shared house in Acton is covered. Ealing adopted additional HMO licensing from 1 April 2022 for HMOs let to 3 or 4 unrelated individuals, and the designation covers the whole borough until 31 March 2027 unless revoked earlier. Ealing states that mandatory HMO licensing applies where five or more persons not living as a single household share facilities, though a flat in a purpose-built block of three or more flats falls outside mandatory licensing. Between those two schemes, a shared house of three or more sharers in Acton needs a licence.

GOV.UK says renting out an unlicensed HMO can lead to an unlimited fine, so the licence belongs in the programme, not after it. Ealing property licences generally last 5 years where there has been no previous enforcement. The landlord or their agent applies for the licence. We build the fire doors, alarms, kitchens and bathrooms the licence conditions ask for, so the inspection finds the house as drawn, and we give you the certificates the application needs.

Room sizes, amenities and fire safety in an Acton HMO

Ealing's HMO rules decide how many people an Acton house can take. Ealing never permits a room under 6.5m2 to be used as sleeping accommodation, a bedroom can hold two people at most, and no bedroom may be reached through a shared kitchen. Floor area under a ceiling lower than 1.5m does not count when occupant numbers are set, and Ealing requires 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom per 5 occupiers. Those local rules sit alongside the national minimum room sizes that every licensed HMO in England must meet as a licence condition. The national figure for one adult is slightly above Ealing's rounded 6.5m2, and a larger floor is needed where two adults share, so we set rooms out with a margin.

Fire safety is the other half of the build. Each bedroom gets a fire door onto a protected escape route, the house gets an interlinked fire detection and alarm system, and the stair and hall are enclosed so people can get out past a fire. We follow the LACORS housing fire safety guidance and building regulations Part B, add sound insulation between rooms that adjoin, and include the heating and insulation work needed for the EPC a let requires.

• Sound lining to bedroom walls and party walls
• Hot water sized for several sharers showering at once, with any gas work by a Gas Safe registered engineer
• Service holes sealed so each bedroom and the kitchen stay separate fire compartments

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 5 statistical areas in Acton. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Once the hmo conversions work in Acton is scoped, people usually go on to read bathroom renovation in Acton, hmo conversions across Ealing, how building control works in London, kitchen fitting in London, hmo conversions anywhere in London and Renovation Budget & Contingency.

Trusted HMO Conversions in Acton

We convert houses into HMOs as one contract, building to the planning consent and the licence conditions together so the house passes inspection the first time. We visit, measure every room against Ealing's standards, and give you a written quotation that shows the bedroom count the layout supports. A registered electrician certifies the wiring and the alarm circuits, and gas work is done by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. If the scheme changes after approval, we price the change before we build it.

• Kitchens and bathrooms counted against the council's amenity standard
• Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you
• Existing HMOs brought up to licence conditions, fire works first

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).