HMO Conversions Richmond

An HMO conversion in Richmond upon Thames turns a family house into a shared house, or brings an existing HMO up to licence standard. Richmond publishes its own Minimum Amenities Standards for Houses in Multiple Occupation 2020, sets kitchen and living room sizes, and requires planning permission for HMOs of seven or more people. We build the fire doors, detection, escape routes, kitchens, bathrooms and room layouts the licence depends on. The landlord or their agent applies for the licence and any planning consent, and we work to the approved layout.

In Richmond upon Thames, 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 Richmond upon Thames: 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 shared house in Richmond upon Thames

Start with the use class, because it decides whether planning is needed at all. The London Plan glossary defines HMOs for three to six people as Use Class C4 and those for more than six as Sui Generis, and Richmond says planning permission is required for HMOs occupied by seven or more people. Class L of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits a change from a C3 dwellinghouse to a C4 HMO, but it does not allow one house to become two or more separate C4 HMOs.

Class L can be removed locally. The London Plan says that when boroughs consider Article 4 Directions affecting changes between C3 and C4, they should weigh the strategic as well as local importance of HMOs. The Article 4 Directions Richmond upon Thames lists cover basements across the borough, named conservation area streets and Class E to homes, and none of those removes the C3 to C4 right. Your agent still confirms the position for the address before you buy on the strength of permitted development. Richmond's Policy 14 also protects existing larger HMOs of a reasonable standard, which matters if you plan to take one back to a family house.

Housing in Richmond upon Thames

Richmond upon Thames has about 85,810 homes on the Council Tax list: 38% pre-1919, 24% interwar and 37% post-war, with flats making up 42% and houses 58%.

HMO licensing in Richmond upon Thames and what it asks of the build

A licence is the landlord's paperwork, but the building has to earn it. The mandatory licence applies in Richmond to any house or flat let to five or more occupiers in two or more separate households who share amenities. That matches the GOV.UK definition of a large HMO as one rented to 5 or more people forming more than 1 household. GOV.UK adds that a smaller HMO may still need a licence depending on the council area, but Richmond upon Thames sets out only the mandatory licence on its HMO licence page. A flat in a purpose-built block of three or more self-contained flats is outside the mandatory scheme. The landlord confirms with the council that no other scheme covers the address before letting.

Getting it wrong is expensive: GOV.UK says renting out an unlicensed HMO can lead to an unlimited fine. Richmond offers 90-minute in-depth HMO pre-application advice, and taking it before the layout is fixed is cheaper than rebuilding a kitchen after an inspection. We price from the layout the landlord intends to license, build to it, and pass on the fire alarm, emergency lighting and electrical certificates from the specialists who issue them. Keep copies of every certificate with the licence file, since a renewal is likely to ask for them again.

Room sizes and amenity standards for Richmond upon Thames HMOs

Every letting room and shared space in a Richmond upon Thames HMO has a floor it cannot drop below, and the borough is clear that these figures are a minimum rather than a target. For cooking, the shared kitchen must reach 7 m2, rising to 11 m2 if tenants eat in it, and it needs a worktop no smaller than 1500 x 600 mm. The communal living room starts at 11m2, or 18m2 where it doubles as the kitchen. A bedsit with its own cooking facilities gets 3.5m2 added to the usual bedroom minimum, so a room fitted with a kitchenette has to be larger than a plain bedroom.

Sloping ceilings are where Richmond upon Thames period houses lose space. Richmond's standards disregard any floor area where the ceiling height is below 1.5m, so a top floor room under the roof can measure well on plan and still fall short. Mandatory licence conditions add the national bedroom minimums: 6.51 square metres for one person over 10, 10.22 for two people over 10, and no room under 4.64 square metres used for sleeping. Fixed boxing and built-in cupboards also come off the usable area, while a door swing does not. We measure each room to those rules before partitions go up, and position bathrooms and WCs so sharers have the ratio the licence asks for.

Fire safety, sound and energy in a Richmond upon Thames HMO

In a shared house every bedroom opens onto a protected escape route, so doors onto the stair and hall become fire doors with self closers, and the stair enclosure is lined to give the fire resistance the escape route needs. Interlinked detection and alarms run through every room, emergency lighting may be needed on the route, and a kitchen should not be the only way out of a bedroom. New partitions, doors and stair linings are building work under Part B, and the LACORS housing fire safety guidance is the recognised guide the licensing inspection uses.

Sharers keep different hours, so sound insulation between lettings reduces complaints, and we add resilient ceilings and mineral wool where bedrooms sit over or beside each other. On energy, GOV.UK says that since 1 April 2020 landlords can no longer let or continue to let properties covered by the MEES Regulations with an EPC rating below E without a valid exemption. That bites where the whole house is let on one tenancy; a room-by-room let generally needs no EPC, though licence conditions may still ask for one. The government has confirmed plans to raise the minimum to EPC C, subject to regulations, so insulate floors and roofs to that level while they are open.

• Existing HMOs upgraded to meet their licence conditions
• Electrics extended to every bedroom, certified by a registered electrician
• Insulation and heating upgrades toward the minimum EPC for letting

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 23 statistical areas in Richmond upon Thames. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Before committing to hmo conversions in Richmond upon Thames, it is worth looking at bathroom renovation in Richmond upon Thames, our Richmond upon Thames area guide, builders in Richmond upon Thames, what a snagging list covers, hmo conversions across London and Getting Planning Permission.

Why Choose GS Renovation in Richmond upon Thames

An HMO conversion has to satisfy the licence, the fire guidance and the tenants who live with the result. We walk the house with you, check each room against the council's sizes before pricing, and give a written programme that shows when the fire works, certificates and final inspection fall. A registered electrician certifies the wiring and alarms, and an engineer on the Gas Safe Register handles the boiler. One contact, the founder Abdelaaziz Saaid, runs the job from the first room check to the licence inspection.

• Finished and snagged before the council's licence inspection
• Article 4 and licence position checked before a room is priced
• Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder

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