Get the layout right before the first wall moves. We design HMO conversions against the licensing council's space and amenity standards — maximising lettable rooms within the rules — and hand you a works schedule a builder can price directly.
Design to the standard
Councils don't license HMOs on impressions; they license them against numbers. National mandatory conditions set the floor: a bedroom under 6.51m² cannot be let as sleeping accommodation to a single person over 10 years old, and a room for two people needs at least 10.22m². On top of that, each licensing council publishes its own amenity standards — how many kitchens, bathrooms and WCs each number of occupants requires, what counts as adequate cooking facilities, and how much communal living space is expected.
Those local standards are where conversions go wrong. A layout that would license comfortably in one borough can fail next door, and many councils discount floor area under sloping ceilings when they measure a loft room. We start every design by obtaining your licensing council's current standards, then measure the property properly — so every decision that follows is made against the figures an officer will actually apply.
The margin matters: a bedroom that scrapes past 6.51m² may satisfy the national condition yet still fail a council that sets 8m² or 10m² locally. Designing to the wrong number can cost you a lettable room — or an approved licence.
Why design first
Detection grade, the protected escape route, fire door positions and emergency lighting are all far cheaper to get right on a drawing than to retrofit after a licensing officer has walked the corridor. Our layouts place the fire strategy first, so the inspection confirms what the plan already shows. Once occupied, an HMO fire risk assessment completes the picture.
Maximising room count by shaving space off bedrooms is how conversions fail. We work the other way: find the layout that yields the most rooms the council will actually license, even where that means one fewer bedroom and a stronger, faster application. A compliant five-bed earns more than a refused six-bed.
Planning check: converting a family home (C3) to a small HMO (C4) is often permitted development — but in Article 4 areas that right is removed and planning permission is needed, and HMOs of seven or more people always require it. We flag the position for your address as part of the design and advise confirming with the council before works begin.
How it works
We measure the property room by room, recording head heights, window positions and the existing escape route.
Your licensing council's space and amenity standards are obtained and applied — including any Article 4 or planning flags.
A compliant layout is drafted showing room sizes, amenities, fire doors and escape routes, with options where trade-offs exist.
You receive the final plan plus an itemised schedule of works a builder can price — ready for quotes and, later, the licence application.
The same drawings feed straight into your HMO licence application, which needs scaled floor plans anyway — and once the conversion is done, we can supply the full certificate stack and marketing floor plans from the same file. Tell us about the property to get started.
Common questions
It depends on the size of the property and the scope of the conversion — a layout review of an existing shared house costs less than a full conversion design with a works schedule. Send the address and what you're planning via the quote form and we'll reply with a fixed quote, usually the same working day.
Mandatory licensing conditions in England set national floors: a room under 6.51m² cannot be used as sleeping accommodation by a single person over 10 years old, and a room shared by two people needs at least 10.22m². Many councils apply higher local standards and discount floor area under sloping ceilings, so we always design to your licensing council's published figures, not the national minimum alone.
Sometimes. Changing a family home (C3) to a small HMO of up to six people (C4) is often permitted development, but an Article 4 direction removes that right in many areas, and HMOs of seven or more people are sui generis and always need planning permission. We flag the position for your address and advise confirming with the council before works start.
A measured, compliant layout showing every bedroom with its usable floor area, kitchen, bathroom and WC provision against the amenity ratios, escape routes and fire door positions — plus a schedule of works a builder can price line by line, so quotes come back comparable and nothing compliance-critical is left as a vague allowance.
Yes, from the first draft. Detection, the protected escape route, fire door positions and emergency lighting are decided on the plan, where moving them costs nothing — not after a licensing inspection, when moving them means builders coming back. The design pairs naturally with our HMO fire risk assessment once the property is occupied.
Tell us the property type and postcode — we'll come back with a fixed quote and the earliest available date.