HMO Conversions Sidcup

An HMO conversion in Sidcup always starts with planning. A Bexley Article 4 Direction covering the whole borough has applied to small HMOs since 24 September 2017, so even a three-person shared house needs permission here. After that come Bexley's HMO standards for room sizes, kitchens and bathrooms, and the Rent it Right rule on ceiling heights. We build a Sidcup house to those standards and to the fire safety an HMO is judged against, from the consented drawings.

In Sidcup, 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 Sidcup: 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.

HMOs in Sidcup need planning permission first

Every HMO in Sidcup goes through planning. Nationally, Class L lets a family house become a small C4 HMO without an application, but a Bexley Article 4 Direction removed that right everywhere in the borough from 24 September 2017. Its Design Guide SPD Part 2 confirms the result: all HMO proposals now need permission. Bexley's advice is to speak to its planning team before any building work begins, and we will not start an HMO job until that is settled.

Size changes the planning class as well. In the London Plan glossary, a shared house for three to six people falls in Use Class C4, while one for more than six is Sui Generis. A seven-bedroom scheme in a large Sidcup detached house is therefore a different application from a five-bedroom one. Class L also never allowed one house to become two separate C4 HMOs. The owner or their agent applies, and we price the building work to the scheme that gets consent.

Housing in Sidcup

Sidcup has around 15,110 homes on the Council Tax list: 57% post-war, 30% interwar and 12% predate 1919, with 40% flats and 60% houses.

Which Sidcup HMOs need a licence from Bexley

Licensing follows the number of people. Once five or more people from two or more households live in a Bexley HMO, a mandatory licence applies regardless of storeys, unless the HMO is a flat in a purpose-built block of three or more flats. On GOV.UK terms, an HMO is let to at least 3 people who are not from 1 household and who share the bathroom and kitchen. A large HMO is one let to 5 or more people who form more than 1 household.

Below five occupants the position in Sidcup is simpler. Bexley states that a privately rented property, including an HMO with fewer than five people, outside a selective licensing area does not need a licence, and Bexley's selective scheme covers Belvedere Ward. So a three or four-person Sidcup HMO needs planning permission but no licence. The landlord applies for any licence; we build to the standards it will be inspected against, and letting without a required licence is an offence.

Room sizes, kitchens and bathrooms in a Sidcup HMO

The layout is drawn around Bexley's minimum room sizes: 6.52m2 for a single sleeping room and 10.23m2 for a double in a shared house, or 12m2 and 15m2 where a bedsit has its own kitchen. Those sit above the national licence minimums of 6.51m2 for one adult and 10.22m2 for two, and no room under 4.64m2 may be used for sleeping. Height counts too, as each HMO room needs 2.14m of clear height across 85% of its floor under the Rent it Right standards, which rules out some low Sidcup attic rooms as bedrooms whatever their floor area.

Shared rooms scale with the head count. Each group of up to 5 persons needs its own full set of cooking facilities under Bexley's standards. With five or more sharing, every five occupants also need a bath or shower and a separate toilet. The Design Guide adds outdoor amenity space: 5m2 covers 1 to 2 persons, with 1m2 more for each further occupant. On a Sidcup semi, the second kitchen or bathroom is usually what decides whether a sixth bedroom is worth having.

Fire safety, sound and energy in a Sidcup shared house

Fire safety is the core of an HMO build. In a Sidcup shared house, each bedroom opens onto a protected route out to the street door. Fire doors with self-closers go on each letting room and the kitchen, alongside an interlinked detection and alarm system and emergency lighting where the escape route needs it. Part B of the building regulations governs the conversion, and the LACORS housing fire safety guidance is the recognised benchmark the council's housing officers use.

Sound and energy follow. Separate tenants share walls with strangers, so mineral wool goes into the stud walls and floor voids between letting rooms, and the plan puts the noisy shared kitchen away from bedroom walls where it can. Where a Sidcup shared house is let on one tenancy and needs an EPC, the MEES Regulations apply: a rating below E cannot be let or kept let without a valid exemption. Upgrading insulation and heating in the same build is cheaper than returning to it later.

• Interlinked smoke and heat alarms, mains-wired and graded to the council's HMO fire guidance
• Large HMO conversions for seven or more, once planning is granted
• Small HMO conversions for three to six sharers

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Sidcup West, Sidcup East, Lamorbey and Foots Cray Meadows. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Useful next reading for a hmo conversions project in Sidcup: bathroom renovation in Sidcup, hmo conversions across Bexley, how building control works in London, how snagging works at handover, hmo conversions across London and Kitchen Renovation Cost.

Trusted HMO Conversions in Sidcup

An HMO conversion has to satisfy planning, building control and the licensing officer, and the order of work decides whether it does so first time. We work from the consented drawings, build the fire separation, detection and escape route, fit the extra kitchens and bathrooms to Bexley's standards and leave the certificates the landlord needs for the licence file. The founder brings more than three decades of hands-on building work. You get a written quote after a site visit and a written programme.

• EPC upgrades done while the walls and floors are still open
• One point of contact on the phone, not a call centre
• Every bedroom measured against the national minimum room sizes

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