Is my home licensed?
Most shared houses (HMOs) need a licence, and in many areas every privately rented home does. Enter your postcode to see which licensing schemes cover your council and, where the council publishes its register as a file we can read, whether a licence for your address is on it. Nothing you enter is stored.
B21 9SP is in Birmingham (Soho & Jewellery Quarter ward)
Licensing schemes
- Mandatory HMO licensing applies everywhere in England: a house or flat shared by 5 or more people from 2 or more households needs a licence.
- Additional HMO licensing covers the whole of Birmingham, 5 Jun 2023 to 4 Jun 2028. Smaller HMOs (for example 3 or 4 sharers) need a licence here too. Citywide.
- Selective licensing covers part of Birmingham (25 of 69 wards): check the council's map for your street, 5 Jun 2023 to 4 Jun 2028. Every privately rented home in the area needs a licence, shared or not.
Scheme details were checked on 17 Oct 2026 from the council's own pages. Schemes start, end and get renewed; the council's page is the current word.
The council's register
Selective licensing applies here: every privately rented home in the area needs a licence, shared or not. Birmingham's selective licence register isn't one we can check, so ask the landlord for the licence number, or use Birmingham's own register search.
What we can check for this address is Birmingham's register of licences for shared houses (HMOs) only:
No licence is listed at B21 9SP on Birmingham's published register (copy of 17 Oct 2026). Add a house number or flat above to check one home.
That is not the same as the home being unlicensed. Registers lag behind decisions, an application may be pending (which is a defence to a rent repayment claim), and this register holds licences for shared houses (HMOs) only. The council can confirm whether a licence or an application exists. Birmingham's register page.
This is public data about schemes and registers, not a finding about any home. Whether a licence was needed, and whether one was held, is for the council and, in a dispute, the tribunal.
Next
- What the tribunal ordered landlords of unlicensed homes to repay near B21 9SP: tenants of homes let without a required licence can apply for a rent repayment order.
- What the rent tribunal decided on rent increases near B21 9SP.
- Email me when a new decision is published near B21 9SP.
- Shelter on HMO licensing and GOV.UK on rent repayment orders.
Which councils we can check
Register lookups work for councils that publish their register as a file: Barnet (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Bexley (shared houses (HMOs) and selective licences; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Birmingham (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Brighton and Hove (shared houses (HMOs) and selective licences; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Camden (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Hillingdon (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Hounslow (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Kensington and Chelsea (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Kingston upon Thames (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Lambeth (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Leicester (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Lewisham (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Manchester (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Nottingham (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Portsmouth (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Sheffield (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Sutton (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Tower Hamlets (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Waltham Forest (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Warwick (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026); Woking (shared houses (HMOs) only; copy of 17 Oct 2026). The copy date is when we last downloaded the council's file; a few files are a council's reply to an earlier Freedom of Information request, so they are as old as that reply. For other councils the page shows the schemes and links to the council's own register search where there is one. How this works and its limits.