Four London boroughs have landlord licensing schemes starting or renewing within a single year, and enforcement is already running into eight figures citywide. If you own a rental property anywhere in London, there's a real chance one of these changes touches you directly, whether it's brand new or something you were already supposed to have covered years ago.
CortexaProp exists to give overseas owners of UK property the visibility they cannot get from five thousand miles away. This piece breaks down exactly what's genuinely new, what's just a renewal, and how to check your own borough and ward, not the citywide headline.
What does £24 million in London licensing fines actually mean?
The figure comes from Kamma's own analysis of the Mayor of London's Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker database, not an official Mayor's office report. Kamma's tracking, captured in late May 2026, found £24,125,937 in fines across 4,229 cases citywide, with licensing offences alone accounting for £14.85 million of that total.
Worth being precise here. This is one analyst's reading of a public enforcement database, not a government-published total, and no clear start date is given for the period it covers. What it does show clearly is scale: thousands of separate cases, not a handful of headline prosecutions, and licensing is the single largest category within it.
What's genuinely new in Camden?
Camden introduced a completely new borough-wide additional HMO licensing scheme, with no prior equivalent, starting 8 December 2025 and running to 8 December 2030. This is real new territory for Camden landlords who weren't previously required to hold an additional HMO licence.
If your Camden property lets to three or more people from two or more households sharing facilities, and it wasn't already covered by mandatory HMO rules, this scheme likely applies to you now, where it didn't in 2024. There's no phase-in grace period built into the designation itself, only the standard licence-application window councils typically allow after a scheme goes live.
Is Islington's licensing scheme actually new?
No, and this is the distinction most coverage gets wrong. Islington's additional HMO licensing scheme has run continuously since 1 February 2021. What's happening on 1 February 2026 is a renewal, extending the same scheme for another five years through 31 January 2031, not a fresh requirement.
If you've owned an HMO in Islington since before 2021, this changes nothing about whether you need a licence. It only means your existing obligation continues rather than lapsing. The practical risk here isn't missing something new. It's assuming a renewal means "check again later" when the requirement, in fact, never stopped.
What's changing in Hackney, and why did coverage lapse for three years?
Hackney is bringing in two schemes on 1 May 2026: a renewed selective licensing scheme covering 17 wards, and a genuinely new borough-wide additional HMO licensing scheme. Both take effect the same day, but they carry different histories.
Here's the detail worth knowing. Hackney previously ran discretionary licensing schemes, both additional and selective, from 2018 to 2023. Those schemes lapsed, and there was a real gap with no discretionary licensing in force in Hackney from 2023 until the 2026 schemes commence. That gap matters for anyone assuming "Hackney has always had this" or "Hackney never required this." Both assumptions would be wrong at different points in the same six-year span.
What's starting in Croydon?
Two entirely new schemes launch in Croydon on 1 September 2026: selective licensing across 14 named wards, and additional HMO licensing borough-wide, both running to 1 September 2031. Neither existed in this form before.
Croydon landlords in the 14 selective-licensing wards specifically will be dealing with a requirement that simply didn't apply to non-HMO lettings there previously. Combined with the borough-wide additional scheme, Croydon moves from having no discretionary licensing infrastructure to a fairly comprehensive one within a single commencement date.
What does missing one of these schemes actually cost?
Two real, already-published cases show the range. A Haringey landlord was fined £19,975 for an unlicensed HMO, published directly by the council on 14 July 2025. A Gateshead landlord was fined £42,300 for HMO fire-safety failures on an unlicensed property, decided 18 May 2026.
Neither case involves the four boroughs above specifically, but the mechanism is identical: a licensing requirement went unmet, and a council caught up with it. Both figures already reflect an early-payment discount, meaning the original fines were higher still. Camden, Hackney, and Croydon landlords facing genuinely new requirements this year are exactly the population these kinds of penalties tend to catch first, simply because the requirement is new to them.
How do you know if your specific borough and ward are affected?
The only reliable way is checking your exact borough and, for ward-level schemes, your specific ward, since a citywide or borough-level headline doesn't tell you whether your street is actually covered. Selective licensing in particular is often ward-specific, not borough-wide, so "does Croydon have selective licensing" and "does my ward in Croydon have selective licensing" can have different answers.
CortexaProp's own reference database now covers licensing schemes across 29 of London's 33 boroughs, rebuilt and re-verified against primary council sources this year specifically to catch cases like Hackney's lapse and Islington's renewal, not just the existence of a scheme.
What should you actually do this week?
Check your specific postcode and ward against current licensing requirements rather than relying on a borough-level headline or something you were told years ago. Islington's renewal shows why "I checked once" isn't the same as "I'm still covered correctly."
The free Licence Check tool does exactly this: enter a postcode, and it checks additional and selective licensing status for that specific borough and ward against our verified database, with a source and last-checked date for every result. It takes about 20 seconds, and if a scheme's coverage can't be confirmed precisely from your postcode alone, it says so honestly rather than guessing. For the fuller picture beyond licensing specifically, including certificates and Renters' Rights Act status, a free Risk Scan covers the wider set of obligations these penalty figures ultimately connect to.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Licensing designations, ward boundaries, and enforcement figures can change; verify your specific property against your local council's current designation before relying on any borough-level summary, including this one.
Key takeaways
- ✓Kamma's analysis of the Mayor of London's Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker database found £24,125,937 in fines across 4,229 cases citywide, captured late May 2026 — this is an analyst's reading of public data, not an official GLA total.
- ✓Camden's additional HMO licensing scheme (from 8 December 2025) and Croydon's two schemes (from 1 September 2026) are genuinely new requirements with no prior equivalent.
- ✓Islington's 1 February 2026 scheme is a renewal of a requirement that has applied continuously since 2021, not a new one.
- ✓Hackney had a real three-year gap with no discretionary licensing in force (2023–2026) before its renewed selective and new additional schemes commence 1 May 2026.
- ✓Real penalties for unlicensed HMOs in 2025-2026 range from roughly £20,000 to over £40,000, even after early-payment discounts are applied.
Frequently asked questions
Is my London borough introducing new landlord licensing in 2026?
It depends on the borough. Camden and Croydon are introducing genuinely new schemes in 2025-2026. Islington is renewing an existing scheme that's applied since 2021. Hackney is doing both, a renewal and a new scheme, after a three-year gap with no scheme in force. Check your specific borough rather than assuming a citywide pattern applies uniformly.
What is the £24 million London licensing fines figure based on?
It's Kamma's own analysis of the Mayor of London's public Rogue Landlord and Agent Checker database, captured in late May 2026, not an official Mayor's office report. It found £24,125,937 in fines across 4,229 cases, with £14.85 million specifically from licensing offences.
Does Islington's 2026 licensing renewal mean landlords have a new requirement?
No. Islington's additional HMO licensing scheme has applied continuously since 1 February 2021. The 2026 designation extends the same requirement for another five years, through 31 January 2031, rather than introducing anything new.
Why did Hackney have a gap with no licensing scheme in force?
Hackney's previous discretionary licensing schemes, both additional and selective, ran from 2018 to 2023 and then lapsed. No renewed or replacement scheme was in force between 2023 and the new schemes commencing 1 May 2026, a genuine three-year gap.
How can I check if my specific property is affected by a licensing scheme?
The free Licence Check tool checks additional and selective licensing status for a specific postcode and ward against a verified database, showing the source and last-checked date for each result rather than a general borough-level answer.
Sources
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