HMO Conversions Peckham

HMO conversions in Peckham are shaped by licensing more than by planning. Southwark's additional licensing designation applies to the entire borough and covers HMOs let to a maximum of 4 people who share a kitchen or bathroom. While it runs, to 1 March 2027 unless revoked earlier, even a modest shared house in SE15 needs a licence. The houses that get converted come from the 26% of Peckham homes that are houses, chiefly terraces and larger period houses. We build the letting rooms, kitchens, bathrooms and fire protection that a landlord's licence and the council's standards call for.

In Peckham, 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 Peckham: 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 for a Peckham HMO: Class L, Article 4 and Policy P9

Class L of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows a switch from C3, a single household, to C4, a small HMO for three to six people, as permitted development. That right is lost wherever an Article 4 direction removes it. Above six sharers the use is sui generis in the London Plan glossary. Southwark adds that letting to 7 people or more, or letting any HMO inside an Article 4 direction area, needs planning permission. Class L also stops one house being split into two separate C4 HMOs.

Southwark's published HMO directions include Henshaw Street in SE17 and Bywater Place in SE16, but that list does not prove a Peckham street is clear, so confirm with Southwark that no direction covers your address before relying on Class L. When a Peckham HMO does go to planning, Policy P9 of the Southwark Plan 2022 requires communal indoor and outdoor space, refuse and recycling storage, and one cycle parking space per occupant. It also requires the HMO to meet Southwark's Standards for HMOs and not contribute to an overconcentration in the local area.

Housing in Peckham

Take the 26,680 or so homes the valuation list gives Peckham: 74% flats, 26% houses, 36% from before 1919, 2% interwar and 56% post-war.

Mandatory and additional HMO licensing in Peckham

In Peckham the licence comes before the building work, because its conditions set the specification. A house shared by 5 or more people from more than 1 household is a large HMO on the GOV.UK definition and needs a mandatory licence. Smaller shared houses fall under Southwark's additional licensing, a scheme the council designated on 28 October 2021 which took effect on 1 March 2022 across the whole borough. The scheme is due to end on 1 March 2027 if not revoked sooner, so confirm whether it has been renewed.

Mandatory licensing does not reach a flat in a purpose-built block of three or more self-contained flats; where such a flat is shared, it is the council's additional scheme, if any, that applies.

The additional scheme also takes in section 257 HMOs, where a building of 3 or more storeys was turned into 3 or more flats that one owner still controls, and Southwark charges no fee for those. For a Peckham landlord the licence conditions become the building specification. You or your agent make the application; we build the rooms, amenities and fire protection to the conditions and supply the programme the licensing officer may want alongside your designer's drawings.

Southwark's HMO Standards for rooms, kitchens and bathrooms in Peckham

The council's HMO Standards fix the room sizes a Peckham shared house is built to. With the kitchen in its own room, one person's letting room needs 10 square metres or more and a couple's room 14 square metres or more. Ceilings should reach 2.3 metres over at least half of the habitable floor area. These council figures sit above the national minimum sleeping-room sizes that apply as mandatory licence conditions: 6.51 square metres for one adult, 10.22 for two, and no room under 4.64 used for sleeping. In a Victorian terrace the box room at the front and the room over the back addition are the likely casualties, so measure those two before you count the lettings.

The sharing ratios set how many kitchens and bathrooms the house needs. If each letting cannot have its own, the Standards ask for a bathroom or shower room, a WC and a basin per 5 residents, and a full set of kitchen facilities per 5 residents. So a Peckham HMO for six people needs a second bathroom and a second kitchen set, and that decides the plumbing, drainage and extract routes more than anything else in the conversion.

Fire safety, sound and energy in a Peckham shared house

Fire protection is the core of an HMO conversion in Peckham. Part B of the building regulations, the council's own HMO fire requirements and the LACORS housing fire safety guide together set the standard. In practice that means linked smoke and heat detection, self-closing fire doors on every letting room and the kitchen, and a protected route down the stair to the street door. We fire stop every pipe and cable that passes between floors and put the alarm certificate in your handover file.

Sharers keep different hours, so sound between the rooms of a Peckham HMO needs attention too. We line the walls and upgrade the floors between letting rooms. Energy is the third item, and local authorities enforce the MEES Regulations. Where the house is let on a tenancy that needs an EPC, it must rate E or better, and since 1 April 2020 that covers continuing lets as well as new ones. Insulation, heating controls and glazing are cheaper while the rooms are stripped than once tenants are in.

• Sound lining to bedroom walls and party walls
• Extra shared bathrooms and shower rooms
• Existing HMOs upgraded to meet their licence conditions

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 6 statistical areas in Peckham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Work in Peckham rarely sits on its own, so you may also want bathroom renovation in Peckham, hmo conversions across Southwark, what a main building contractor does, what a snagging list covers, hmo conversions anywhere in London and Renovation Budget & Contingency.

The GS Renovation Difference in Peckham

An HMO conversion in Peckham has to satisfy a licensing officer as well as building control, and each checks different things. We build from the licence conditions, the council's HMO Standards and your designer's drawings, and programme the fire protection so it is inspected before it is covered. A registered electrician certifies the wiring and alarm circuits, and an engineer on the Gas Safe Register handles the boilers. You receive one handover file holding the certificates the licensing officer will ask for.

• Detection laid out to the grade the council's HMO fire guidance sets
• Kitchens and bathrooms counted against the council's amenity standard
• Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes

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