HMO Conversions Charlton

HMO conversion in Charlton is a planning and licensing job before it is a building one. Royal Greenwich's Article 4 direction, in force since 27 September 2018, covers the whole borough, and any new HMO for 3 or more unrelated adults needs planning permission. Every HMO in the borough must then be licensed. We build Charlton shared houses, and upgrade existing ones, to the consent and the licence standards: room sizes, bathrooms, fire doors, detection and escape.

In Charlton, 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 Charlton: 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.

Why a Charlton HMO always starts with planning permission

Nationally, Class L of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 lets a house (C3) become a small HMO (C4) without an application. In Charlton that route is closed. Royal Greenwich's Article 4 direction requiring planning permission to convert a house into an HMO covers the whole borough and came into force on 27 September 2018. Royal Greenwich also says any new HMO for 3 or more unrelated adults needs planning permission.

Size sets the class. The London Plan glossary puts HMOs for three to six people in Use Class C4 and HMOs for more than six in Sui Generis, and Class L never allows one house to become two or more separate C4 HMOs. The London Plan also asks boroughs to protect HMOs of a reasonable standard. For a Charlton landlord, the application, made by the owner or their agent, fixes the number of rooms we build.

Housing in Charlton

The stock in Charlton runs to roughly 9,540 dwellings, 49% of them flats and 51% houses, built 29% before 1919, 22% between 1919 and 1939 and 49% after 1945.

Mandatory and additional HMO licensing across Charlton

Royal Greenwich runs both mandatory and additional HMO licensing across the whole borough. Mandatory licensing applies where 5 or more people from 2 or more households share facilities, and additional licensing where 3 or 4 people do, so every HMO in Charlton must be licensed, however small. GOV.UK defines an HMO as a property rented by at least 3 people not from 1 household who share facilities such as the bathroom and kitchen.

One exception matters here: a flat in a purpose-built block of three or more self-contained flats falls outside mandatory licensing, although a council's additional scheme can still cover it.

The penalties make the licence part of the build programme. Royal Greenwich can issue a Civil Penalty Notice on each person committing the offence of failing to licence an HMO, and GOV.UK says renting out an unlicensed HMO can lead to an unlimited fine. The landlord or their agent applies. We build to the licence conditions and hand over the certificates the Charlton application needs, so letting is not held up at the end.

Room sizes, headroom and bathrooms in a Charlton HMO

Royal Greenwich's HMO standards decide how many lettable rooms a Charlton house gives. No room under 4.64 square metres may be used for sleeping, and a ceiling height of 2.1m is expected over at least half of each room, with floor below 1.5m headroom discounted. National licence conditions set the adult minimums above that floor: 6.51 square metres for one adult and 10.22 square metres for two. Sloping top-floor rooms in older terraces lose area to the headroom rule.

Bathrooms follow the same logic. Every bath or shower room must contain a wash hand basin, and the minimum acceptable bath is 1700mm by 700mm. That sets the size of each bathroom and whether the drainage reaches it with enough fall, so the pipe runs are drawn before the partitions. Where a Charlton scheme includes self-contained units, Royal Greenwich treats them as homes that must meet London Plan Policy D6 space standards instead.

Fire safety, sound and energy in a Charlton shared house

Fire safety is the heart of an HMO build. Each bedroom gets a fire door with a self-closer, the stair becomes a protected escape route, and detection and alarms are linked through the house, following Part B and the LACORS housing fire safety guidance used by councils. Royal Greenwich building control requires a full plans application where the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to a building, which includes the shared parts of an HMO in Charlton.

Sound between lettings matters to tenants and to licence inspections, so we insulate party floors and the walls between bedrooms, and fit quiet closers. Energy counts too. An HMO let from rooms is still covered by the energy rules: since 1 April 2020 a property rated below E cannot be let without a valid exemption, which rules out F and G. A Charlton HMO conversion is the natural time to insulate and fit efficient heating.

• Protected escape routes through the hall, stair and landings
• Sound lining to bedroom walls and party walls
• Interlinked smoke and heat alarms, mains-wired and graded to the council's HMO fire guidance

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Charlton Village, Charlton Slopes and Hornfair Park. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Once the hmo conversions work in Charlton is scoped, people usually go on to read bathroom renovation in Charlton, hmo conversions across Greenwich, how building control works in London, kitchen fitting in London, how we handle hmo conversions across London and Small Bathroom Ideas.

The GS Renovation Difference in Charlton

An HMO is inspected against a written standard, so the build has to match it room by room. We read the planning consent and the licence conditions before pricing, measure every room against the headroom and size rules, plan the fire doors, alarm and escape route with the fire alarm installer, and hand over the certificates the licence needs. Abdelaaziz Saaid, the founder, oversees each conversion with over thirty years of hands-on experience, and the landlord deals with one team throughout.

• Finished and snagged before the council's licence inspection
• Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
• Sound lining between bedrooms so one sharer does not keep another awake

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