Houses in multiple occupation

Who should be the licence holder?

The licence holder should be the fit and proper person or entity who owns the freehold or long leasehold for the property.  This may be a single person, joint owners, a partnership, a limited company, other organisation or body such as a charity or trust.

We have a duty to issue the licence to the most appropriate person or entity. This is the ‘person in control’.

A licence holder can nominate a ‘manager’, for example a letting agent, to take care of the day-to-day running activities of the HMO.

However, the manager will not usually hold the licence in their name. Instead, they will be named on the licence as the manager. 

In some cases, the person who owns the freehold or leasehold for the property is not the ‘person in control’.

For example, the property owner may hire a manager to deal with every facet of running the HMO and delegate authority to spend money on the property. In this instance, the manager will be deemed the person in control.

Both the proposed licence holder and manager must be fit and proper people in order to get the licence.

List of houses in multiple occupation

We publish a list of addresses of HMOs in Swindon and the name of the licence holder.

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