Dan was at his desk on a Tuesday morning, working through a stack of tenancy renewals. Then the email arrived. A council enforcement officer. Two properties in Sandwell. A selective licensing scheme he’d never heard of.
The scheme had launched in October 2025. The 30-day application window had closed six weeks earlier. For letting agents managing properties across multiple boroughs, this story is becoming dangerously common.
Dan’s agency was about to find out exactly how expensive that gap gets.
Two Properties. Two Penalties. £16,000.
Dan managed properties across three boroughs in the West Midlands. He was diligent. But selective licensing schemes are administered by individual local authorities, and no council sends agents a personalised warning.
The enforcement officer’s email was clear. Two properties sat in a newly designated licensing area. No licence applications had been submitted.
Two civil penalty notices arrived. £8,000 each. Dan’s first instinct was to push back.
His terms of business stated that licensing was the landlord’s responsibility. He told the council this. The council disagreed.
Why “It’s the Landlord’s Job” Didn’t Work
The Housing Act 2004 doesn’t only bind property owners. It places obligations on the “person managing” a property too. As the managing agent, Dan fell within that definition.
So the penalties held. Both of them. His landlord clients were furious.
One left the agency within a month. The other threatened legal action over fees Dan had charged while allegedly failing to manage compliance. Dan hadn’t done anything dishonest, but he’d missed something real. The law didn’t care why.
The Rule Change That Made Everything Harder
Before 2025, local authorities wanting to introduce selective licensing schemes covering more than 20% of their housing stock needed Secretary of State approval. That process was slow. It limited how many schemes could launch at once.
In 2025, the government changed the rules. The General Approval 2025 removed that requirement for many scheme types. Local authorities no longer needed central sign-off.
Instead, they could consult, designate, and launch faster, with far less national visibility. As a result, 49 new selective and additional licensing schemes launched or were confirmed across England in 2025 alone. That number is still growing.
For any letting agent managing properties across new areas in 2025 and 2026, the landscape has fundamentally shifted.
Which Areas Are Affected?
These schemes aren’t concentrated in one region. They’re spreading across urban and suburban boroughs, many with no history of licensing enforcement. Recent activity covers a wide range of locations.
- West Midlands — including Sandwell, Wolverhampton, and parts of Birmingham outside existing HMO licensing areas
- Yorkshire and the Humber — including parts of Leeds, Bradford, and Sheffield expanding their selective zones
- Greater Manchester — several boroughs consulting on additional licensing schemes for the first time
- South East and East — councils in Essex and Kent running first-generation selective schemes
- East Midlands — Nottingham has an established scheme, but neighbouring councils are now consulting
If you manage properties across even two or three boroughs, the probability is high that at least one has launched a new scheme in the past 12 months. The question is whether you found out in time.
Landlord Pro tracks your selective deadlines automatically. Start free at landlord.compliance-engine.io.
What You’re Required to Do
When a selective licensing scheme launches in an area where you manage properties, your obligations are clear, even if no one spells them out personally. Here’s what the process requires.
- Identify affected properties. Cross-reference your managed portfolio against the designated area, usually defined by ward boundaries or postcode zones.
- Apply within the deadline. Most schemes require applications within 30 days of the commencement date, though some allow longer windows during the launch period.
- Submit the correct documentation. This typically includes gas safety certificates, EICRs, EPC ratings, and tenancy agreements.
- Pay the licence fee. Fees vary by council but commonly range from £500 to £1,200 per property. You can usually recharge this to the landlord.
- Display the licence. Once issued, you must include the licence number in any new tenancy agreement or advertisement for the property.
Missing the application window doesn’t pause the obligation. The property is unlicensed from the moment the scheme commences. Every week without a licence increases your exposure.
The Penalty Framework You Need to Understand
Local authorities can issue civil penalty notices of up to £30,000 per property under the Housing and Planning Act 2016. In practice, first-time penalties for straightforward non-compliance tend to land between £5,000 and £12,000. Dan’s £8,000 per property sits squarely in that range.
Repeat or deliberate non-compliance can trigger higher fines. It can also trigger a Rent Repayment Order, allowing tenants to reclaim up to 12 months of rent. That risk sits with whoever collects the rent, which, for most managed properties, is the agent.
Even if your terms of business push liability to the landlord, a council enforcement team may still name you. You can litigate that with your client later. But the penalty notice arrives first.
How Nadia Handled the Same Situation
Nadia runs a lettings agency managing 110 properties across five boroughs in the West Midlands. She saw the Sandwell scheme coming. Not because she was lucky, but because she had a system.
Landlord Pro monitors selective and additional licensing scheme activity by postcode area. When a new scheme launches, or when a consultation closes and a commencement date is confirmed, the dashboard flags every affected property and the application deadline.
When the Sandwell scheme launched in October 2025, Nadia’s dashboard flagged 11 properties. She contacted the relevant landlords within three days. Applications went in within two weeks.
Her landlords paid the fees. Not one questioned her competence. Not one left.
The Difference Wasn’t Knowledge. It Was Infrastructure.
Nadia didn’t know more than Dan. But her system did the watching for her. She didn’t rely on a council letter that was never going to arrive.
In contrast, Dan managed compliance from memory, inbox alerts, and a spreadsheet that didn’t know what it didn’t know. That gap, between informal systems and tracked systems, is where agencies lose clients and accumulate liability.
The General Approval change means the pace of new schemes will accelerate through 2026. Your portfolio will grow into new risk areas. So the question is whether your system moves with it.
Being the agency that already submitted the application is a simple thing to offer. But it’s the kind of thing clients remember when they’re deciding whether to stay.
Landlord Pro tracks every compliance deadline across your entire portfolio. Gas certs, EICRs, EPCs, licences, deposit protection — all in one place. It costs nothing. Start tracking your properties today.
Frequently Asked Questions
As a letting agent, am I liable for selective licensing compliance, or is that the landlord’s responsibility?
Both parties can be liable. The Housing Act 2004 places obligations on the “person managing” a property, and that includes managing agents. If your agency collects rent and handles day-to-day management, a council may treat you as the responsible party, regardless of what your terms of business say.
You may be able to recover costs from your landlord client later. However, the civil penalty notice arrives in your name first.
How do I find out if a new selective licensing scheme has launched in an area where I manage properties?
Local authorities publish consultations and commencement notices on their websites, but there’s no national register that automatically notifies agents. Most agencies find out too late, through a tenant query, a landlord call, or an enforcement notice.
Landlord Pro monitors selective and additional licensing scheme activity by postcode. It flags affected properties in your portfolio as soon as a scheme is confirmed, giving you time to act before deadlines pass.
What happens if I miss the application deadline for a selective licensing scheme?
Missing the deadline means every day the property remains unlicensed adds to your exposure. Local authorities can issue civil penalties of up to £30,000 per property under the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
In addition, tenants in unlicensed properties may apply for a Rent Repayment Order, potentially recovering up to 12 months of rent from whoever collected it. So the safest position is to apply as early as possible, ideally before the scheme commencement date, during any pre-launch grace period the council offers.
Does the General Approval 2025 affect all types of licensing schemes?
The General Approval 2025 primarily removes the requirement for Secretary of State approval when a local authority wants to designate a selective licensing scheme covering a significant portion of its housing stock. This makes it faster and easier for councils to launch new schemes without central government sign-off.
As a result, new selective licensing scheme designations across new areas in 2025 and 2026 have increased sharply. Agents managing properties in multiple boroughs now face a higher chance of being caught out without a monitoring system in place.