How to Pass an HMO Inspection London | Checklist 2026

To pass a London HMO inspection, your property needs compliant fire doors, interlinked alarms, clear escape routes, adequate room sizes, the right kitchen and bathroom amenity ratios, and current safety certificates, all in place before the officer arrives. A council HMO officer works through a defined set of fire safety, amenity and management standards, and most failures come down to a handful of recurring issues that are cheaper to fix in advance than after a notice. This guide is the practical checklist, what is checked, why properties fail, and how to put it right.

What does a council HMO officer actually check?

An HMO inspection is structured around the standards a licensed house in multiple occupation must meet, and knowing the officer's checklist lets you walk the property in their shoes before they do. The officer assesses three broad areas. First, fire safety: fire doors, interlinked alarms, escape routes, emergency lighting where required, and fire-stopping between units. Second, amenity standards: whether rooms meet minimum sizes and whether there are enough kitchens, bathrooms and WCs for the number of occupants. Third, management and condition: that the property is in good repair, free of hazards, and that the required certificates, the electrical installation report and the gas safety record, are current and available. Many of these standards come from the HMO licensing conditions and the borough's own amenity standards, which can be stricter than the national minimum. The officer will move room by room, opening fire doors, testing alarms, measuring where a room size is borderline, and checking that escape routes are clear and protected. They will ask to see certificates and records. Preparing for an inspection therefore means doing the same walk yourself first, with this checklist in hand, and dealing with anything that would fail before the visit. Landlords letting shared houses in London can find more on our /for-landlords page.

Fire doors: the most common failure

Fire doors are where more HMO inspections fail than anywhere else, because the requirements are specific and small defects matter, so this is the area to get right first. In most HMOs, doors to risk rooms, principally bedrooms onto escape routes and the kitchen, must be fire doors, typically FD30 (offering 30 minutes' fire resistance). A compliant fire door is not just the leaf: it must have the correct intumescent strips and cold smoke seals fitted, the right gaps around the leaf (broadly a consistent 2-4mm to the frame), a self-closing device that fully closes the door from any position, three hinges of the correct type, and a frame and leaf in good condition without holes or damage. A fire door propped open, with a broken closer, missing seals, oversized gaps, or hollow-cored and simply painted to look the part, will fail. The common faults are easy to picture: a closer removed because tenants found it annoying, gaps so large you can see daylight, seals painted over or missing, and ironmongery that is not fire-rated. Fixing them means fitting genuine certified fire doors where they are missing, replacing failed seals and closers, and adjusting gaps so the door performs. This is precise work, and getting it wrong is why properties fail twice, so we handle fire doors as certified installations through our /services/fire-doors service.

Alarms, emergency lighting and compartmentation

After fire doors, the detection and containment systems are where officers focus, and the standard for an HMO is higher than for a single family home, which catches out landlords who assume battery alarms are enough. Most shared houses require a Grade D1 interlinked alarm system: mains-powered smoke alarms with battery backup, interlinked so that when one sounds they all sound, with a smoke alarm on each storey of the escape route and a heat alarm in the kitchen (smoke alarms are unsuitable in kitchens because cooking sets them off). Larger or higher-risk HMOs may need a more sophisticated Grade A system. Where escape routes are long or internal without natural light, emergency lighting may be required so occupants can leave safely in a power cut. The exact specification follows a fire risk assessment and the borough's standards. Compartmentation and fire-stopping are the quieter half of fire safety. The escape route, hall, stairs and landings, should be protected so a fire in one room cannot quickly fill the route, which is why fire doors and intact walls and ceilings matter. Gaps where pipes, cables or old features breach a wall or ceiling between compartments must be fire-stopped so fire and smoke cannot pass through. Officers do look for these breaches. We fit and upgrade interlinked alarms, emergency lighting and fire-stopping through our /services/smoke-alarms and /services/emergency-lighting services, so the whole fire-safety package is consistent rather than patched together.

Room sizes, amenity ratios and escape routes

Alongside fire safety, the officer checks whether the property is physically suitable for the number of people living in it, and the amenity standards are precise enough that a borderline room can tip a property into failure. National minimum sleeping room sizes for licensed HMOs set a floor: a room used for sleeping by one adult must be at least 6.51 square metres, and a room used by two adults at least 10.22 square metres, with rooms under 4.64 square metres not usable for sleeping at all. Boroughs often apply their own, sometimes larger, standards, and parts of a room below 1.5 metres in height generally do not count toward the usable floor area. Amenity ratios govern shared facilities: there must be enough kitchens, sinks, cookers, bathrooms and WCs for the number of occupants, with the required ratio rising as the household grows. An HMO with too many tenants for its kitchen or bathroom provision fails on amenity even if everything else is sound. Escape routes tie it together. The route out of the property must be clear, protected by fire doors, and free of obstruction and storage, and any final exit must open easily without a key. A bicycle in the hall, a cupboard built across a landing, or a deadlocked front door that needs a key to get out are all simple fails. Where room sizes or layout fall short, the fix can be a refurbishment, reconfiguring a layout, adding amenities or adjusting occupancy, which we plan as part of HMO compliance work through our /services/hmo-compliance service.

The HMO inspection checklist

It helps to have the whole inspection on one page, so the table below is the practical checklist to walk your property against before the officer does, grouped by what they assess. Anything you cannot tick should be fixed before the visit, because finding it yourself is far cheaper than receiving a notice. Two items on the list, the electrical installation report (EICR) and the gas safety record, must be carried out and certified by appropriately qualified and registered electricians and Gas Safe engineers. These certificates are required, and the officer will ask to see them, but they are specialist certifications rather than refurbishment work. Our role is the fire-safety installations, repairs and refurbishment that make up the rest of the list.

Inspection area	What must be in place
Fire doors	FD30 doors to risk rooms, intumescent and smoke seals, self-closers working, correct gaps, no damage
Alarms	Grade D1 interlinked mains alarms, smoke alarm per storey of escape route, heat alarm in kitchen
Emergency lighting	Provided where escape routes are internal or long, per the fire risk assessment
Fire-stopping	Compartmentation intact, breaches around pipes and cables sealed, protected escape route
Room sizes	Single sleeping room ≥ 6.51 sqm, double ≥ 10.22 sqm, plus any stricter borough standard
Amenity ratios	Enough kitchens, cookers, sinks, bathrooms and WCs for the number of occupants
Escape routes	Clear, unobstructed, protected by fire doors, final exit openable without a key
Certificates	Current EICR and gas safety record available (issued by qualified, registered contractors)

Common fail reasons and how to fix them before inspection

Most HMO failures are not exotic, they are the same handful of issues recurring across properties, which is good news, because it means a pre-inspection walk with this list catches the great majority of them. The usual culprits are: fire doors with missing seals, removed closers or oversized gaps; battery-only smoke alarms where an interlinked mains system is required, or a missing kitchen heat alarm; escape routes blocked by storage or a deadlocked exit; rooms let as sleeping rooms that fall below the minimum size; too many tenants for the kitchen or bathroom provision; fire-stopping breaches left open after cabling or plumbing work; and certificates that have expired. Each of these is fixable in advance, and each is far cheaper to fix on your own timetable than under an improvement notice. The right preparation is a dry run. Walk the property with the checklist, open every fire door and check seals and closing, test that alarms interlink, measure any borderline room, clear and unlock escape routes, and confirm your certificates are current. Then put right what fails. Where the fixes are fire-safety installations, doors, alarms, emergency lighting, fire-stopping, or layout changes to meet room and amenity standards, we carry them out to the standard an officer expects, so the inspection is a formality rather than a gamble. Passing first time protects your licence and avoids the cost and delay of remedial works under enforcement.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a council check in an HMO inspection?

An HMO officer checks fire safety (fire doors, interlinked alarms, escape routes, emergency lighting and fire-stopping), amenity standards (minimum room sizes and enough kitchens, bathrooms and WCs for the occupants), and management and condition, including current electrical (EICR) and gas safety certificates. They work room by room, opening fire doors, testing alarms, measuring borderline rooms and checking escape routes are clear and protected.

What are the minimum room sizes for an HMO?

The national minimum for a licensed HMO is 6.51 square metres for a room used for sleeping by one adult and 10.22 square metres for a room used by two adults, with rooms under 4.64 square metres not usable for sleeping. Floor area below 1.5 metres in height generally does not count. Many London boroughs apply their own, sometimes larger, amenity standards, so always check the local requirement.

Why do most HMOs fail their inspection?

The most common failures are fire doors with missing seals, removed self-closers or oversized gaps; battery-only alarms where a Grade D1 interlinked mains system with a kitchen heat alarm is required; escape routes blocked by storage or a deadlocked exit; rooms below the minimum sleeping size; too many tenants for the kitchen or bathroom provision; open fire-stopping breaches; and expired certificates. Almost all are fixable in advance on your own timetable.

Do HMO bedrooms need fire doors?

In most HMOs, doors to risk rooms, typically bedrooms onto the escape route and the kitchen, must be fire doors, usually FD30. A compliant fire door needs the correct intumescent and cold smoke seals, the right gaps around the leaf, three suitable hinges, and a self-closing device that fully closes the door. A propped-open door, a broken closer, missing seals or a hollow door painted to look the part will fail.

What alarm system does an HMO need?

Most shared houses require a Grade D1 interlinked system: mains-powered smoke alarms with battery backup, interlinked so that when one sounds they all sound, with a smoke alarm on each storey of the escape route and a heat alarm in the kitchen. Larger or higher-risk HMOs may need a more sophisticated Grade A system. The exact specification follows the fire risk assessment and the borough's standards.

How to Pass an HMO Inspection in London: Checklist (2026)