HMO Conversions Barnes

HMO conversion in Barnes means turning a family house into a shared house for unrelated tenants, or bringing an existing shared house up to licence standard. 52% of homes here are houses, so the buildings exist, but the decision turns on planning use class, Richmond's HMO licensing and its written amenity standards. The landlord or their agent applies for any planning permission and licence. We build to the conditions: fire doors, detection, escape routes, kitchens, bathrooms and room layouts that meet the figures Richmond sets.

In Barnes, 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 Barnes: 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 use class for a Barnes shared house

Class L of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits a change from C3 dwellinghouses to C4 houses in multiple occupation, and the London Plan glossary defines HMOs for three to six people as C4 and larger ones as Sui Generis. Richmond says planning permission is required for HMOs occupied by seven or more people. So a Barnes landlord planning a shared house for six people and one planning for eight face different routes before any building work is priced.

Class L does not permit the use of a building previously used as a single C3 dwellinghouse as two or more separate C4 HMOs, so a Barnes house cannot be split into two shared houses under that right. The London Plan also asks boroughs considering Article 4 Directions on changes between C3 and C4 to weigh the strategic as well as local importance of HMOs. The owner's designer checks the address for any direction before relying on Class L.

Housing in Barnes

Barnes has around 9,740 homes on the Council Tax list: 31% post-war, 17% interwar and 51% predate 1919, with 48% flats and 52% houses.

When a Barnes HMO needs a licence

Richmond requires an HMO licence where five or more occupiers form two or more separate households who share amenities: the mandatory licence. Nationally, a flat in a purpose-built block of three or more flats falls outside mandatory licensing, so in Barnes it mostly reaches whole and converted houses. GOV.UK defines an HMO more widely, as a property rented out by at least 3 people who are not from 1 household but share facilities like the bathroom and kitchen. A three or four person shared house in Barnes is still an HMO under that definition, even where the mandatory licence does not apply.

GOV.UK says that even a smaller HMO rented to fewer people may still need a licence depending on the council area, and that renting out an unlicensed HMO can lead to an unlimited fine. The landlord confirms with Richmond which licence the Barnes property needs and makes the application. We build to the licence conditions and the council's standards, and provide the certificates and measured room schedule the licensing officer asks to see at inspection.

Richmond's HMO amenity standards in a Barnes layout

Richmond publishes Minimum Amenities Standards for Houses in Multiple Occupation 2020 and says they are minimums, not the ideal state. Its standards set a minimum of 7 m2 for a kitchen or 11 m2 for a kitchen/diner, and a living room of 11m2, or 18m2 for a combined kitchen and living room. In a Barnes terraced house the back reception and back addition often become the shared kitchen, so their measured size decides how many tenants the house can take.

Worktops matter too: at least 1500 x 600 mm, or 1000 x 600mm for single occupier accommodation. Where a bedsit has its own kitchen facilities, Richmond adds 3.5m2 to the minimum bedroom sizes, and its standards disregard any floor area where the ceiling height is below 1.5m. In a Barnes top-floor room under a sloping roof, that last rule can remove a surprising share of the floor. Bedrooms have a national floor too: since 1 October 2018 a mandatory licence requires at least 6.51 square metres for one adult and 10.22 for two, and no room under 4.64 square metres may be slept in. We measure every room on the survey before the layout is fixed.

Fire safety, sound and energy in a Barnes HMO

Fire safety is the core of an HMO conversion in Barnes. The usual package is fire doors with self-closers on every letting room and the kitchen, a protected escape route down the stair, interlinked smoke and heat detection, and fire-resisting ceilings where the timber floors are exposed. LACORS housing fire safety guidance is the recognised reference, and building regulations Part B applies to the works. The exact specification comes from the licence conditions and the risk assessment for the house.

Sound between letting rooms and energy performance come next. Insulation in partitions and floors cuts noise between tenants who keep different hours. Where the letting needs an EPC, for example a whole-house tenancy to a group of sharers, GOV.UK says that since 1 April 2020 it cannot be let or continue to be let below E without a valid exemption. A Barnes house let room by room generally needs no EPC, but insulating while walls are open still pays. Richmond Local Plan Policy 14 also protects existing larger HMOs where they are of a reasonable standard, so for the owner of one the policy points towards upgrading it rather than losing it.

• Small HMO conversions for three to six sharers
• Insulation and heating upgrades toward the minimum EPC for letting
• Snagging before the council's licence inspection

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for North Barnes and Mortlake & South Barnes. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Once the hmo conversions work in Barnes is scoped, people usually go on to read bathroom renovation in Barnes, hmo conversions across Richmond upon Thames, bathroom fitting in London, kitchen fitting in London, hmo conversions anywhere in London and Small Bathroom Ideas.

Trusted HMO Conversions in Barnes

An HMO in Barnes is inspected against written standards, so the build has to match the paperwork. GS Renovation measures every room at the survey, lays out the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms against Richmond's amenity figures, and builds the fire protection to the licence conditions. The founder and director Abdelaaziz Saaid is involved from the first visit. The landlord or their agent applies for the licence and any planning permission; we supply the programme, the measured room schedule and the certificates that support the licensing inspection.

• Every bedroom measured against the national minimum room sizes
• Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on
• Finished and snagged before the council's licence inspection

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