Croydon Landlord Licensing Scheme: What Changes 25 Sept

If you own a rental property in Croydon, there's a date you need to have in your diary: 25 September 2026. That's when Croydon Council's two new licensing schemes come into force, and from that point, letting an unlicensed property in the borough becomes a criminal offence.

We've seen a lot of licensing changes come and go over the years, but this one is bigger than most landlords realise. Croydon was one of the first London boroughs to run borough-wide selective licensing back in 2015, and this new scheme picks up where that left off, covering a much larger slice of the private rented sector than before.

Here's what's actually happening, and what you need to do about it.

Two schemes, not one

Croydon is introducing two separate licences at the same time:

Selective Licensing – for standard properties let to a single household (a family, a couple, a sharer group who count as one household). This applies in 14 designated wards across the borough, including areas like Thornton Heath, Selhurst, Broad Green, Norbury and South Norwood. If your property sits in one of these wards, you'll need a licence regardless of what type of tenancy you have.

Additional HMO Licensing – for smaller shared houses that don't already need a mandatory HMO licence. This one applies borough-wide, not just in the selected wards, so if you let to three or more people forming two or more households anywhere in Croydon, this is likely to catch you.

Between them, the council expects over 53,000 privately rented properties to fall into scope. That's a large chunk of the local rental market, so don't assume this is something that only affects "other landlords."

Why it matters if you do nothing

Once the scheme starts, operating without the right licence isn't just a paperwork slip-up, it's a criminal offence. The realistic consequences are:

An unlimited fine, or a civil penalty that can run into tens of thousands of pounds per property
A Rent Repayment Order, where a tenant (or the council) can claim back rent you've received while unlicensed — under the Renters' Rights Act this can now stretch back up to 24 months
Difficulty using Section 21 or Section 8 notices while a property is unlicensed
In serious or repeated cases, a banning order that stops you letting property altogether

We say this not to alarm you, but because we've seen landlords caught out by licensing changes before, usually not through carelessness but simply because nobody told them clearly what was coming or when.

What it will cost

Based on what's been approved so far, a five-year licence is expected to cost around £800 for selective licensing and £1,250 for additional HMO licensing. There are discounts available for accredited landlords and for properties with a good EPC rating, and these can be stacked, so it's worth checking whether you qualify before you apply rather than after.

When can you actually apply?

This is the part that trips people up. The scheme comes into force on 25 September 2026, but the council has indicated that applications will open during the summer beforehand. Our advice is simple: don't wait until the start date to apply. Councils tend to see a rush of applications in the final weeks before a scheme goes live, and processing times slow down accordingly. Getting your application in early, with your documents ready, is the best way to avoid being caught in limbo.

You'll typically need:

A valid gas safety certificate
A current EICR (electrical safety report)
An EPC certificate
Details of your tenancy and how the property is managed

If any of these are due for renewal in the next year, it's worth sorting them now rather than scrambling in August.

Selling with a tenant in place? This changes the calculation

If you're weighing up whether to sell a tenanted property before the scheme starts, licensing status is now something buyers will ask about, and rightly so. An unlicensed property in a designated ward isn't just an administrative gap, it affects what a buyer can legally do with it and what income they can rely on. If you're planning to sell in the next year, it's worth getting the licence in place before you go to market rather than leaving it for the new owner to sort out. It tends to make the sale smoother and gives buyers, especially investors, more confidence in what they're taking on.

Our honest take

Licensing schemes like this are rarely popular with landlords, and the fees and admin do add up, especially if you hold more than one property. But the reality is that Croydon has approved this, it's happening, and the penalties for ignoring it are genuinely severe. The landlords who come out of this well are the ones who treat it as a straightforward compliance task now, rather than something to worry about closer to the deadline.

If you're not sure whether your property falls within one of the 14 selective licensing wards, or whether your shared house counts as an HMO under the new rules, that's worth checking properly rather than guessing. Get in touch and we can talk through what it means for your specific property.