Most students make the move away from halls in first year towards a shared house with friends for second and third year, and a lot of people find it a much more relaxed, independent way of living.
If you end up living in a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), it’s worth knowing the legal duties placed on your landlord around licensing, how those duties keep you safe, and what to do if things aren’t as they should be.
Types of licencing
Nearly all student houses count as HMOs. Any property with three or more unrelated tenants living there is an HMO, whether those tenants are studying, unemployed, or working. Once a property is an HMO, whether or not it needs a licence, the landlord takes on extra duties, mainly around your safety.
Some HMOs are classed as ‘mandatory’: properties with five or more unrelated tenants. In this case, the landlord must obtain an HMO licence from the local authority.
Many local authorities go further than this bare minimum, introducing selective or additional licensing on top. Leicester and Loughborough both do this, so it’s worth knowing how it works locally:
- Leicester: the city runs a selective licensing scheme covering six wards, including Stoneygate, Fosse, Westcotes, Braunstone Park & Rowley Fields, Saffron and Spinney Hills. Within these areas, even smaller HMOs (as few as two households, up to four people) need a licence, on top of the national mandatory scheme that applies everywhere. See Leicester City Council’s property licensing pages for the current designated areas.
- Loughborough (Charnwood): Charnwood Borough Council runs a borough wide additional licensing scheme covering every HMO with three or four unrelated occupants, alongside a separate selective licensing scheme for ordinary rented properties in the Hastings and Lemyngton wards. See Charnwood Borough Council’s HMO licensing pages for full detail and to check whether a specific property is covered.
This is a complex area of law, but it exists to raise standards and protect tenants. Where a landlord fails to get a licence they should hold, there are serious financial penalties, and tenants can apply for a Rent Repayment Order, which can force the landlord to refund rent you’ve already paid.
Exceptions: halls and accredited accommodation
Most university halls of residence, and other student accommodation signed up to an approved code of practice, aren’t defined as HMOs in law. Properties managed by local authorities and housing associations aren’t classed as HMOs either.
The two main codes covering student accommodation in the UK are the UUK/GuildHE Student Accommodation Code, which covers accommodation directly managed by universities themselves, and the ANUK/Unipol National Code, which covers larger purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) run by private providers rather than the university directly. If your accommodation is covered by one of these codes, it sits outside the HMO licensing system entirely, but you’re still protected by the code’s own standards on safety, management and complaints.
Complaints about the property
You have the right to complain to the council if you’re not happy with the property. The council enforces HMO standards, and can assess a property using the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. If they consider it unsafe or unfit to live in, they can force the landlord to fix the problems.
Councils can prosecute landlords, or any manager they’ve employed, if the law is broken. In extreme cases, the council can take over management of the property directly.
Further help
If you need more advice, support or information, contact your local council, or your University or Students’ Union adviser, who can help you deal with any issue you’re facing.
Updated 19.10.26