Southampton’s additional HMO licensing scheme runs from 1 October 2025 until 30 September 2030. It requires a licence for smaller HMOs that sit below the national mandatory threshold of five occupants. The designation, the current wards or citywide map, and the fee sit on Southampton City Council’s HMO licence page. The fee is the one on that page.
Mandatory HMO licensing still applies at five or more people from two or more households sharing facilities. Additional licensing is the scheme that catches the smaller shared houses. Sitting outside the designation, if the map is wards rather than the whole city, removes that licence. The fire safety duty stays.
Shared houses, the port, and bedsits near the universities
A lot of the smaller HMOs are older houses split for students and sharers in the streets around the universities. Fire stopping between the original rooms, and between the ground floor and the bedrooms above, is what those assessments usually find missing. Say it is a three- or four-person HMO when you ask for quotes. Additional licensing is often why the assessment has been booked.
Bedsits and converted houses near the port and the city centre are a different job: more occupants, more cooking, more doors onto a shared hall. The report has to name those doors and what happens if the hall is blocked. A small shop on a parade and a house of bedsits should not come back as the same template.
If you rent from a social landlord, start with them.
The additional licence and the fire risk assessment are two duties
The additional HMO licence is a housing licence from Southampton City Council. The fire risk assessment is a Fire Safety Order duty. You still need the written fire risk assessment. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service will still ask for the written report.
What a Southampton report should actually name
A report that could have been written for any city is not suitable and sufficient here. It should say whether the property needs an additional HMO licence under the 1 October 2025 designation, where the storey alarms are, and what the escape is if the staircase is the only way out. For bedsits it should name the shared hall and the cooking in rooms, not “common parts” as a heading with nothing under it.
Checking an assessor in Southampton
Fire risk assessors are not licensed by anybody, so a Southampton landlord checks them personally. Qualifications, professional body membership, indemnity cover, and a report they have written for a comparable HMO. The questions are listed on what a fire risk assessment costs.
What it costs in Southampton
A three or four person shared house under the 2025 designation is a smaller job than a house of bedsits with cooking in rooms and doors onto one hall, and the two quotes should not look alike. National ranges are on what a fire risk assessment costs. Tell the assessor how many sleeping rooms there are and whether the staircase is the only way out, then ask for a fixed price against that description.
Bristol is the other city on this site with additional HMO licensing at three occupants: fire risk assessments in Bristol.
Additional licensing dates in Southampton
I thought the scheme started in September 2025.
Southampton City Council’s HMO licence page puts additional licensing from 1 October 2025 until 30 September 2030. That is the council page to use.
Does the additional licence replace the fire risk assessment?
No. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service will still ask for the written assessment.
My HMO is in a ward that was on last year’s list. Am I definitely in?
Check the current designation. Additional licensing maps move. The council page is the live list.
Getting a quote from an assessor covering Southampton
Describe the premises and we will pass it to assessors covering Southampton. Say whether it is a smaller HMO under the 2025 designation, a five-person HMO, or bedsits.
Not in Southampton? See all the areas we cover.