Oxford runs additional HMO licensing across the whole city. A smaller shared house, meaning three or four tenants from two or more households sharing a kitchen or bathroom, needs a licence before it can be let. That sits on top of mandatory licensing, which starts at five tenants. The current scheme came into force on 25 June 2026 and runs for five years, and the licence fee is £780. The rules and the current fee are on Oxford City Council’s additional licensing page. Check that page before you apply, because the fee and the conditions can change.
Getting the licence is a housing matter. It does not produce the fire risk assessment or sign one off. That is a separate legal duty and it stays with whoever lets the property.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the enforcing authority
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service enforces fire safety law in most premises across Oxford. They can inspect without warning, serve enforcement and prohibition notices, and take a case to court. They will not write your fire risk assessment for you, though they will give general advice. When they audit a property they want to see the written assessment, and they want the things it recommends to be in place rather than just listed on paper.
The person who arranges the assessment is the responsible person. For a let property that is usually the landlord or the managing agent.
Student houses, college property and converted terraces
Much of Oxford’s licensed housing is older terraced homes split for students and young sharers, around Cowley Road and the rest of East Oxford, in Headington near Oxford Brookes, and out towards Marston and Jericho. In houses like these the assessment usually turns on the fire separation between the original rooms and between the ground floor and the bedrooms above, and on whether the staircase stays usable if a fire starts downstairs. Sleeping accommodation takes the longest to check. Tell the assessor it is a three or four person HMO when you ask for a quote, because the licence is often the reason the assessment is being booked in the first place.
If your building is owned by a college or a housing association, start with their estates or property team, because they may already hold an assessment for it.
The licence and the assessment are two separate duties
The additional HMO licence comes from Oxford City Council. The fire risk assessment is a duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Holding the licence does not cover the assessment, and the fire safety duty does not go away if the property later falls outside licensing. If you let an HMO, run a business from a premises, or manage a building with shared parts, you need the written assessment kept up to date.
What an Oxford report should actually name
A report that could have been written for any town is not suitable and sufficient for a licensed Oxford HMO. It should say whether the property needs a licence, where the alarms sit on each storey, and what happens to the escape route if the only staircase is blocked. For a converted house it should deal with the fire doors and the separation between lettings, not leave “common parts” as a heading with nothing under it.
Checking an assessor in Oxford
There is no official register of fire risk assessors, in Oxford or anywhere else, so the checking is down to whoever pays the invoice. Ask for qualifications, membership of a professional body, indemnity insurance and a sample report before you appoint anyone. The full list of questions, and what a good answer sounds like, is on what a fire risk assessment costs.
What it costs in Oxford
The building sets the price, not the postcode. A three bedroom licensed HMO off Cowley Road is a morning’s work; a block with shared parts and a single staircase is not. Anything over 11 metres tall brings fixed fire door checks with it, and that adds time before the report is even started. The national ranges, and what moves a quote up or down 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.
Additional HMO licensing in Oxford
My house only has three sharers. Do I still need a licence?
Yes. Under Oxford’s additional licensing a smaller HMO of three or four tenants from two or more households, sharing facilities, needs a licence. Check the council page for the current fee and conditions.
Does the licence replace the fire risk assessment?
No. Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service will still expect the written assessment, and the licence does not provide one.
The property is owned by a college. Whose duty is it?
The responsible person is whoever has control of the premises. If a college or agent manages the letting, the duty usually sits with them, so ask who holds the current assessment before you appoint your own.
Getting a quote from an assessor covering Oxford
Describe the premises and we will pass it to assessors covering Oxford. Say whether it is a smaller HMO, a five person HMO, or a block with shared parts.
Not in Oxford? See all the areas we cover.