HMO Conversions Putney

An HMO conversion in Putney has to clear two separate Wandsworth hurdles: planning for the use, and licensing for the letting. Wandsworth began additional HMO licensing on 1 July 2025, and from 1 April 2026 any landlord renting out a home in the East Putney or West Putney ward must apply for a licence. New HMOs that need permission are judged under Policy LP29, which resists the loss of family housing. We build to the room sizes, amenities and fire standards the licence sets, once the owner holds the consents.

In Putney, 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 Putney: 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 Putney shared house

The number of people decides the planning route for a Putney HMO. The London Plan glossary defines an HMO for three to six people as Use Class C4 and one for more than six as sui generis. Class L of the General Permitted Development Order permits a change from a C3 house to a C4 HMO, but it does not allow one former house to become two or more separate C4 HMOs. Your planning adviser should confirm with Wandsworth that no direction removes that right at the address.

Holding a licence does not settle planning: Wandsworth is clear that a shared house for seven or more people needs planning permission of its own. Where permission is needed, the Local Plan Partial Review adopted on 4 March 2026 applies Policy LP29 Housing with Shared Facilities. It supports new HMOs only where they do not lose family housing as defined in Policy LP26, and where the site has public transport access of PTAL 4 or higher and access to suitable shops and services.

Housing in Putney

The stock in Putney runs to roughly 20,990 dwellings, 75% of them flats and 25% houses, built 36% before 1919, 8% between 1919 and 1939 and 54% after 1945.

Which Putney HMO licence the landlord needs

A Putney HMO will almost certainly need a licence, and the landlord applies for it; we build to its conditions. GOV.UK defines a large HMO as one rented to 5 or more people who form more than one household, which falls under mandatory licensing. Wandsworth introduced additional HMO licensing on 1 July 2025 for HMOs not already covered by the mandatory scheme, although it does not apply to Section 257 HMOs, meaning certain converted flats or blocks of self-contained flats.

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.

On top of that, Selective Licensing Designation 2 has covered East Putney, West Putney and Northcote wards since 1 April 2026. The licence length depends on planning too. Five years is the normal Wandsworth term, but a reduced term, usually one year, is likely where HMO use needs planning permission or permission has been refused. Letting without the licence risks an unlimited fine, according to GOV.UK, so the licence and our programme should finish together.

Room sizes, ceilings and amenities in a Putney HMO

Wandsworth's licence conditions fix the room sizes an HMO layout in Putney has to hit. Each single bedroom for a sleeper over 10 must reach 6.51 square metres, each shared one for two such sleepers 10.22 square metres, and a bedsit with its own kitchen facilities needs an extra 3.5 square metres on top of that minimum. No room under 4.64 square metres may be used for sleeping at all. We check the proposed layout against those figures at the survey, because a stud wall in the wrong place can lose a letting room.

Height and facilities follow. Rooms you live in need 2.3 metres of headroom, and an attic room that already exists passes at 2.14 metres across 75% or more of its floor. Shared facilities are counted per head: for every 5 occupants without their own, the house needs a bathroom or shower room, a WC and a basin. In a Putney terrace that often means adding a shower room where a box room was, with new drainage routed to the stack.

Fire doors, alarms and energy rating in a Putney HMO

Fire safety is usually the largest single part of the build in a Putney HMO. Letting rooms usually need fire doors with self closers onto a protected escape route, a linked detection and alarm system suited to the layout, and fire stopping where pipes and cables pass through floors. The LACORS guide on housing fire safety sets the usual benchmark, alongside building regulations Part B wherever building work is done. We follow the specification the owner's designer agrees with the council's HMO team and leave the work open for inspection.

Sound and energy come next. Between letting rooms we add insulation to the stud walls and floors, so tenants on different shifts are not disturbed. Every Wandsworth HMO also needs an EPC of at least band E, unless an exemption is registered. In an older Putney house that points to loft and floor insulation, draught stripping and efficient heating controls, which are all easier to fit while the rooms are stripped.

• Thumb-turn bedroom locks that open from inside without a key
• Emergency lighting on the escape route where the house needs it
• Large HMO conversions for seven or more, once planning is granted

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Putney Embankment & Lower Common, Putney Town & Wandsworth Park, Putney West and East Putney. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Useful next reading for a hmo conversions project in Putney: bathroom renovation in Putney, hmo conversions across Wandsworth, bathroom fitting in London, what a kitchen fit covers, hmo conversions anywhere in London and Bathroom Renovation Cost.

Working With GS Renovation in Putney

We convert and upgrade HMOs to the standard the licence sets, not to a guess at it. We measure every room against the licence sizes before work starts, build fire separation, detection and amenities in the order the inspecting officer will check them, and leave nothing closed up before it has been seen. The owner or their agent applies for planning and the licence, and we supply the drawings, programme and certificates, with a registered electrician certifying the installation.

• Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
• Kitchens and bathrooms counted against the council's amenity standard
• 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).