Barking and Dagenham
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Landlord licensing in Barking and Dagenham
Mandatory HMO licensing applies across England. Barking and Dagenham may also operate additional or selective licensing.
The council’s own sources disagree
Barking and Dagenham's own 'Do I need a licence?' page describes selective licensing as covering 'three targeted designation areas in the borough', while the council's press release announcing the scheme says all landlords in the borough must obtain a licence — describing it as a borough-wide scheme.
- Barking and Dagenham — Do I need a licence?
- Barking and Dagenham — selective licensing scheme press release
Confirm with the council before you act on either.
- Selective licensing
- Sources disagree — see above. Selective licensing applies to privately rented property occupied by a single household (or two unrelated sharers) that is not a licensable HMO. Fees (as published by the council): Part A £650 and Part B £300, with the same £200 Silver / £250 Gold discounts against Part B. IMPORTANT NUANCE: the council's own 'Do I need a licence?' page describes the scheme as covering 'three targeted designation areas in the borough', NOT a single borough-wide designation — even though council press material describes it as approved for the whole borough. The statutory public notice confirms three separate designated areas.Coverage: Three designated areas. The statutory public notice names wards including Abbey, Alibon, Barking Riverside, Beam, Becontree, Chadwell Heath, Eastbrook & Rush Green, Eastbury, Gascoigne, Goresbrook, Heath, Longbridge, Mayesbrook, Northbury, Parsloes, Thames View, Valence, Village and Whalebone — i.e. effectively the whole borough, split across three designations. The exact allocation of each ward to each of the three designations could not be reliably read from the source document, so landlords should check the maps in Annex A of the public notice.Designated: In force 6 April 2025; ceases to have effect 5 April 2030 (or earlier if revoked under s.84 Housing Act 2004). Designation approved by Assembly 18 September 2024 and made 6 January 2025. Applications opened 17 March 2025.
- Additional HMO licensing
- In operation. Additional HMO licensing is in force. The council's page states an Additional HMO Licence is required for an 'HMO occupied by three or four people, forming two or more households'. Fees (as published by the council): Part A £1,000 and Part B £400. Compliance discounts are available against the Part B fee: £200 (Silver Award, satisfactory compliance audit inspection) and £250 (Gold Award, landlord accreditation plus satisfactory inspection).Coverage: Borough-wide.Designated: Launched 9 January 2025 and runs for five years (applications opened 9 December 2024).
Barking and Dagenham runs all three scheme types simultaneously, so essentially every private rental in the borough needs some form of licence. The previous selective scheme ended in summer 2024 and the current one is a fresh designation, so a licence issued under the old scheme is not evidence of current compliance. Fees are split into two parts (Part A on application, Part B on grant), which catches landlords out who budget only for the headline figure. Statutory planning services are delivered by Be First on the council's behalf, not by an in-house planning team.
Checked against the council’s own pages on 21 July 2026. Licensing schemes are five-year designations that expire and get redesignated on their own timetables — always confirm on Barking and DagenhamCouncil’s licensing pages before applying or paying.
What Barking and Dagenham is built of — and what that means for repairs
The borough is dominated by the Becontree Estate, the vast interwar cottage estate built between 1921 and 1932, which produced around 27,000 low-rise homes laid out mainly as two-storey short terraces and semi-detached pairs with generous gardens and wide street frontages. Around Barking town centre and Dagenham there are post-war council-built blocks and maisonettes, many now in mixed private and social ownership after right-to-buy. The Thames-side east of the borough, principally Barking Riverside, is large-scale modern new-build flats and houses.
Common repair issues in Barking and Dagenham
- Ageing interwar Becontree housing with original solid or early-cavity walls, giving cold, poorly insulated external walls and condensation damp
- Original interwar single-skin roofs and timber sash or steel casement windows reaching end of life, driving re-roofing and window replacement work
- Right-to-buy ex-council houses where earlier owner works were done without building control sign-off, causing problems on sale and on licence inspections
- Post-war estate flats with communal heating and shared services, where individual leaseholders cannot unilaterally change the heating system
- Widespread rear extensions and loft conversions on Becontree terraces, which now sit within a council Supplementary Planning Document and Design Code for the estate
- Licence-driven remedial demand: mandatory electrical (EICR), fire alarm and gas certification work required to satisfy selective and additional licence conditions
Areas we cover in Barking and Dagenham
- Barking Town Centre
- Barking Riverside
- Becontree
- Dagenham
- Chadwell Heath
- Rush Green
- Thames View
- Gascoigne
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Do landlords need a property licence in Barking and Dagenham?
Barking and Dagenham operates additional HMO licensing borough-wide. Mandatory HMO licensing applies across England regardless. Checked against Barking and Dagenham Council’s own pages on 21 July 2026 — confirm on the council’s website before applying, as designations expire and are renewed on their own timetables.
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