Birmingham’s additional HMO licensing changed what counts as a licensable HMO on 5 June 2023. A smaller HMO, meaning three or four occupants from two or more households sharing a kitchen or bathroom, needs a licence before you can rent it out. That is on top of mandatory licensing at five occupants. Each additional licence costs £755. Current rules sit on Birmingham City Council’s additional licensing page, last updated 14 May 2026. The current fee and conditions are on that page.
A citywide Article 4 Direction has also been in force since June 2020: planning permission is required to convert a family home to an HMO anywhere in the city. That is a planning rule. It does not write the fire risk assessment. Fire safety law still sits under the Fire Safety Order.
West Midlands Fire Service will ask for the written assessment
West Midlands Fire Service is the enforcing authority for most premises in Birmingham. They can inspect without notice, serve enforcement and prohibition notices, and prosecute. They say they cannot complete a fire risk assessment for you. They can give advice. Their audit will ask whether you have a written assessment and whether the measures in it are actually in place.
The person who appoints the assessor is still the responsible person. There is no licence to write one.
Student streets, towers, and converted houses
A lot of the smaller licensed HMOs are older houses split for students and sharers. Fire stopping between the original rooms, and between the ground floor and the bedrooms above, is what those assessments usually find missing. Sleeping accommodation is the part that takes the longest. Say it is a three- or four-person HMO when you ask for quotes, because the additional licence is often why the assessment has been booked.
If you rent from Birmingham City Council or a housing association, start with them.
The additional licence and the fire risk assessment are two duties
The additional HMO licence is a housing licence from Birmingham City Council. The fire risk assessment is a duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. You still need the written fire risk assessment. Sitting outside additional licensing, if the council’s map ever changes, removes that licence. The fire safety duty stays if you run a business, let an HMO, or manage a building with common parts.
What a Birmingham report should actually name
A report that could have been written for any city is not suitable and sufficient for a licensed smaller HMO or a tower. It should say whether the property needs an additional licence, where the storey alarms are, and what happens to the escape if the staircase is the only way out. For a block it should name the floor height and the fire doors, not “common parts” as a heading with nothing under it.
Checking an assessor in Birmingham
There is no statutory register of fire risk assessors, in Birmingham or anywhere else, so the checking falls to whoever signs the invoice. Ask for qualifications, professional body membership, indemnity cover and a sample report before you appoint. The full list of questions, and what a competent answer sounds like, is on what a fire risk assessment costs.
What it costs in Birmingham
The building sets the price, not the postcode. A three-bedroom licensed HMO in Selly Oak is a morning; a block with common parts and one staircase is not. Anything over 11 metres brings the fixed fire door checks with it, and that adds time before anybody writes a word. National ranges, and what moves a quote inside them, are on what a fire risk assessment costs. Ask for a fixed price against a written description of the property rather than an hourly rate.
Wolverhampton is the other West Midlands city on this site: fire risk assessments in Wolverhampton.
Additional HMO licensing in Birmingham
My HMO only has three sharers. Do I still need a licence?
Under Birmingham’s additional licensing, a smaller HMO of three or four occupants from two or more households, sharing facilities, needs a licence. That has been the rule since 5 June 2023. Check the council page for the current fee and conditions.
Does the additional licence replace the fire risk assessment?
No. West Midlands Fire Service will still ask for the written assessment.
I have planning permission for the HMO. Is that enough?
No. Article 4 is planning. The additional licence is housing. The fire risk assessment is fire law. You can hold planning permission and still be without a suitable assessment.
Getting a quote from an assessor covering Birmingham
Describe the premises and we will pass it to assessors covering Birmingham. Say whether it is a smaller HMO, a five-person HMO, or a block.
Not in Birmingham? See all the areas we cover.