Shared houses and licensing

It is likely that you will be sharing your accommodation with other students and you will therefore be living in a house in multiple occupation (HMO) if both of the following apply:

  • at least 3 tenants live there, forming more than 1 household
  • you share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities with other tenants

If this is the case, your landlord must meet certain standards and obligations.

Licensing

If your rented house has five or more people living in it, these people are not related to each other, and you share the use of a kitchen, bathroom or lavatory, your landlord will need to have applied for an HMO Licence. This applies whether you and your housemates all have one tenancy agreement, or have separate tenancy agreements.

From 4 May 2020 an Additional Licensing designation now applies across the entirety of Coventry. This requires all HMOs to be licensed, even if they have fewer than five tenants.  Some blocks of self-contained flats will also be come licensable. Find out more about property licensing.

Housing Enforcement

Open 9am–5pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays)

Address: Coventry City Council
PO Box 7097
Coventry
CV6 9SL

Telephone: 024 7697 5495