HMO Conversions Croydon

Turning a Croydon house into an HMO is now a planning question and a licensing question at once. An Article 4 direction has required planning consent for small HMOs since 28 January 2020, and from 25 September 2026 borough-wide Additional HMO licensing covers the smaller HMOs that mandatory licensing does not. Croydon also publishes its own HMO standards for room layout, kitchens and bathrooms. We build the rooms, the fire protection and the shared facilities to the consent and licence standards you are working to.

The mandatory scheme stops short of flats in purpose-built blocks of three or more self-contained flats, which only an additional licensing scheme can catch.

In Croydon, 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 Croydon: 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 consent for a Croydon HMO after the Article 4 direction

In Croydon a new HMO of 3 or more people needs planning consent. Nationally, Class L permitted development allows a family house to become a small C4 HMO for three to six people, but Croydon's Article 4 direction removes that right. Because of the direction, an HMO of 3 to 6 people created after 28 January 2020 must have consent, and an HMO that existed lawfully before that date is a different case, worth proving with records before you buy.

Croydon notes that larger HMOs of 7 or more people have long needed consent, separately from the direction. The London Plan glossary puts an HMO for more than six people in sui generis rather than C4. Class L also does not let a single house become two or more separate HMOs. Your designer or planning agent makes the application, and we price from the drawings they submit so the build matches what is consented.

Housing in Croydon

On the valuation list Croydon counts about 168,270 homes, 44% flats and 56% houses; 28% predate 1919, 24% are interwar and 48% post-war.

Croydon HMO licensing from 25 September 2026

From 25 September 2026 every smaller HMO in Croydon that falls outside mandatory licensing needs an Additional HMO licence. The scheme is borough wide and applies where 3 or more people form 2 or more households, and Croydon describes it as covering HMOs with 3 or 4 persons. HMOs with 5 or more people sharing facilities fall under the Mandatory HMO Licensing Scheme instead. The start date was moved from 1 September 2026 by a decision made on 9 July 2026.

Planning and licensing are linked in Croydon. The borough takes an HMO's planning status into account when licensing and may refuse a licence, or grant a reduced term, commonly one year. Additional licences otherwise run for 5 years unless compliance or management concerns justify a shorter term, so the standard of the build affects how long the licence lasts. We build only to consented drawings, and the licence application itself is made by you or your agent.

Room sizes and kitchens under Croydon's HMO standards

Croydon's bedsit HMO standards set the physical layout before we build a wall. Habitable rooms, bathrooms and WCs need a minimum floor to ceiling height of 2.3m, which rules out some attic rooms and low rear additions. No more than 2 people may sleep in one bedroom, and Croydon will not accept bedrooms partitioned only to reach 10m2 if their shape is not practical, so a thin slice off a larger room fails. The national mandatory licence conditions apply on top, measured on usable floor area that leaves out floor under a low sloping ceiling and fixed boxing. They require at least 6.51 square metres for one adult, 10.22 for two, and no room under 4.64 square metres used for sleeping.

Under the same standards, shared kitchens may serve no more than 5 people and must be within one floor of the rooms they serve. Bathrooms follow set ratios, such as 2 bathrooms for 6 to 10 people, again within one floor of every user, and in a house shared by 6 or more each letting needs its own wash-hand basin. These rules drive where the soil stack and new drainage runs go, so we plan plumbing routes alongside the room layout.

Fire alarms, fire doors and escape in a Croydon HMO

Fire safety comes first in a Croydon HMO. Croydon lists a mains wired, interlinked fire alarm system throughout the property among the fire safety measures an HMO may be asked to provide. Each letting room normally needs a fire door with a self-closer and intumescent seals onto a protected escape route, and fire stopping wherever services pass through floors and walls. LACORS housing fire safety guidance is the recognised national guide to fire safety in HMOs.

A change from a family house to a small HMO is not a material change of use under the building regulations, but the building work done for it must still comply, including Part B. The common parts of an HMO fall under the Fire Safety Order, so that work needs full plans rather than a building notice. The licensing team can ask for more once the house is occupied as an HMO. A registered electrician installs and certifies the alarm, and we fit the doors, closers and seals to the schedule your designer or the council sets. Sound insulation between lettings reduces complaints, and in a Croydon house we upgrade floors and walls between rooms where the layout puts a bedroom next to a kitchen.

• Hot water sized for several sharers showering at once, with any gas work by a Gas Safe registered engineer
• Thumb-turn bedroom locks that open from inside without a key
• Sound lining to bedroom walls and party walls

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 45 statistical areas in Croydon. Counts rounded by the VOA.

For the wider picture around hmo conversions in Croydon, see bathroom renovation in Croydon, our Croydon area guide, what a main building contractor does, what a snagging list covers, our London hmo conversions page and Renovation Budget & Contingency.

Working With GS Renovation in Croydon

An HMO is judged twice: by planning and building control while it is built, and by the licensing team once it is let. We build from your designer's consented drawings, plan the rooms, kitchens and bathrooms around Croydon's HMO standards, and give you a programme showing each inspection and each fire safety stage. A registered electrician certifies the wiring and alarm, and a Gas Safe engineer does the gas work. The certificates and fire door records come to you for the licence application. As a landlord converting to let, you are a commercial client under the CDM Regulations, with duties of your own, including appointing a principal designer and principal contractor where more than one contractor works on the job.

• Every bedroom measured against the national minimum room sizes
• Kitchens and bathrooms counted against the council's amenity standard
• Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors

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