Selective licensing Nottingham: what landlords need in 2026

Landlord licence Nottingham at a glance

Sources: Nottingham City Council pages listed under Sources, checked 21 October 2026.

How big is the private rented sector in Nottingham?

At the 2021 Census, 35,688 of Nottingham's 124,743 households rented privately. That's 28.6% of households, well above the 20.3% average across England and Wales. By number of privately renting households, Nottingham ranked 26 of the 331 local authorities in England and Wales; by share it ranked 34. For comparison, 56,315 households (45.1%) owned their home and 31,796 (25.5%) rented socially.

Selective licensing in Nottingham

Nottingham's current selective scheme started on 1 December 2023 and runs to 30 November 2028. It requires privately rented homes in the designated area to be licensed unless they're HMOs licensed under another scheme or are exempt. The designation covers much of the city but not all of it, so check the address against the sealed designation and map on the council's selective licensing page.

Nottingham additional HMO licensing

Additional licensing applies across the whole city from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028. It covers HMOs that aren't caught by mandatory licensing, usually shared houses and flats with 3 or 4 occupants from 2 or more households. Larger HMOs with 5 or more people need a mandatory licence. Nottingham has a large student population, so many of these properties are student lets.

Nottingham landlord licence fees

From 1 April 2026, an individual selective licence costs £759 for accredited landlords, £950 for non-accredited landlords, or £1,318 at the less-compliant rate. In each case £290 is paid as Part A, with the balance as Part B.

HMO licence fees (mandatory and additional) from 1 April 2026 are £1,210 for accredited landlords, £1,607 standard, or £2,180 less-compliant, plus £29 for each bedroom from the 10th upwards. The council's licence fee policy explains how each rate is applied.

Councils usually split a licence fee into two parts: one paid when you apply, covering processing, and one paid before the licence is granted, covering running and enforcing the scheme. Where the council publishes the split, we show it above. Fees are reviewed regularly, so treat these as correct on the date we checked and confirm on the council's fee page before you pay.

Do I need a landlord licence in Nottingham? A quick check

1. Count the people and households living in the property.
2. If 5 or more people from 2 or more households share facilities, you need a mandatory HMO licence.
3. If 3 or 4 people from 2 or more households share, you need an additional HMO licence anywhere in Nottingham.
4. If it's a single-household let inside the selective designation, you need a selective licence.
5. Check whether you qualify for the accredited rate before you apply. It's the biggest saving available.

People also ask about landlord licensing in Nottingham

Do I need a landlord licence in Nottingham? For a shared house, yes, anywhere in the city. For a single-household let, yes if it's inside the selective licensing area.

When does Nottingham selective licensing end? The current scheme runs to 30 November 2028.

How much is a Nottingham selective licence? £759 accredited, £950 non-accredited or £1,318 less-compliant, from 1 April 2026.

What every Nottingham landlord must do, licence or not

Licensing sits on top of the duties every landlord in England already has. Whether or not your Nottingham property needs a licence, you still need to:

• have every gas appliance, flue and pipework checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer every 12 months, and give tenants a copy of the record;
• have the electrical installation inspected and tested at least every 5 years, and give tenants the report;
• hold a valid EPC rated E or above before you let, unless the property is exempt;
• protect any deposit in a government-approved scheme within 30 days and give the prescribed information;
• fit a smoke alarm on every storey used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance (gas cookers excepted);
• carry out Right to Rent checks before a tenancy starts.

A council considering a licence application, or inspecting a licensed property, will usually ask to see evidence of the first four.

What happens if you let without the right licence in Nottingham?

Letting a property that needs a licence without one is a criminal offence. Since 1 May 2026, councils can issue civil penalties of up to £40,000 per offence as an alternative to prosecution, and tenants can apply for a rent repayment order covering up to 24 months' rent; several councils, including Westminster, Brighton & Hove and Islington, now state these limits on their own pages. Prosecution can lead to an unlimited fine. The practical point: once a valid application is in, you're treated as having applied, so apply as soon as you know a licence is needed.

Keeping to your licence conditions

A licence normally lasts up to 5 years, and councils attach conditions to it: typically that you send an updated gas safety certificate when asked, keep smoke alarms working, provide electrical safety certificates, and deal with repairs properly. Keeping on top of those conditions is mostly a matter of records.

That's the part Gaffy helps with. Each property gets a vault where you store the gas safety certificate, EICR and EPC with their expiry dates, and Gaffy flags anything expired or expiring soon, so the certificate a licence condition asks for doesn't lapse. Tenants report repairs through a link in their phone's browser, with photos, which gives you a dated repair history if the council asks. Gaffy is £12 a month for up to 5 properties, plus £4 a month for each extra property, and the first month is free. We don't apply for licences on your behalf.